


Beautiful Crime

by inourtownofpanem



Series: Adelaide Milton Series [1]
Category: The Enemy Series - Charlie Higson
Genre: F/M, bisexuals accidentally save the world, children really shouldn't be doing this, so much gay but so much pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2018-12-03 10:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 32
Words: 41,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11529936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inourtownofpanem/pseuds/inourtownofpanem
Summary: It was safe to say that Adelaide hated DogNut. She hated the way he looked at her, the way he called her "Princess" just to piss her off and his stupid nickname. But there was one thing Adelaide hated more than anything; the fact that she was undeniably in love with the bastard, not that she would actually admit it to both herself and him.After the whole world went to shit, Adelaide survived thanks to her extensive knowledge of horror movies but she was left alone. Her parents and older brother were lucky; they died in their sleep and didn't come back. She survived the best she could with what she had but she knew she wouldn't last at home.So she left home to search for other survivors, and on her travels she had an encounter with a group of grown-ups and was ready to give up on her life but a certain dark haired smart-ass saved her life and thus a love-hate relationship began.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've started to re-read The Enemy series and now I'm trash all over again and I am not ashamed of it. Although, I've decided to go with the American age range so everyone is 16 and under (it just makes more sense to me) but other than that, everything should be the same. This story is split up into three parts; part one taking place during The Dead, part two taking place during The Fear and part three taking place during The End. Hope you guys like it!
> 
> Hailee Steinfeld as Adelaide "Addie" Milton.

**_PART ONE_ **

 

**_THE DEAD_ **

 

"Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I have tasted of desire,

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice is also great

And would suffice."

* * *

By the time the light of the morning began to rise over the quiet city, Adelaide was already awake. She couldn't sleep; every time she closed her eyes, she would be reminded of the things she'd done to survive – the people she had left behind. Their screams and cries for help rang in her ears and echoed inside her mind, driving her insane.

She knew she needed to sleep at some point but sleep would just have to wait until another time. Perhaps she would tire herself out to the point of blacking out, just to get out of those thoughts that came into her mind every time her eyes closed. The coward's route.

Adelaide couldn't think about that now; she had a job to do. Everyone had a job to do, that was how they survived. Jordan – their unvoted leader – assigned everyone a job and they needed to complete that job to ensure the survival of everyone in the group. Those who refused to do their job was sent out onto the streets and left to fend for themselves, never allowed to return – a harsh punishment that ultimately seemed fair.

Her job was to make sure that all the remaining boys were fed and keep tabs on their food supply – a rather simple job that came out of a compromise. Since Adelaide was a girl – and "crucial" to the survival of humanity according to the boys – it was decided that she wasn't allowed to be on guard duty or do anything that would cause her harm – leaving her to do nothing but sit around and watch. In the beginning, Adelaide agreed to this statement but she quickly began to grow tired of being seen as weak and helpless within the eyes of the group.

After a fierce debate between her and Jordan which left him with a mark on his cheek after Adelaide slapped him across the face; they came to an agreement that she would be in charge of food and would be allowed to have a weapon in case the time came where she would need to defend herself. She wasn't happy about it, but she understood that the agreement was Jordan's last offer before she would be thrown out.

Sighing heavily, Adelaide reluctantly crawled out of her makeshift bed and stretched out her limbs. She grabbed her dirty and worn-in leather boots and began to place them on her feet and tied them as tightly as they would go without being too painful. She then grabbed her jacket before leaving the room to begin her routine of checking on the food supply, making sure they had enough to survive.

She kept quiet as she walked through the dark halls, being careful not to wake any of the sleeping kids as she went, knowing how angry they would get if they were woken up early for no reason. On her way towards the make-shift kitchen (which was really just the café), she bumped into DogNut – one of the "guards" and Jordan's right hand man.

Flushing, Adelaide looked down at her feet before looking back up at him. "Sorry, DogBrain, I take it you'll want your usual at breakfast."

DogNut laughed, shaking his head to himself as he playfully nudged Adelaide's shoulder. "You know me, princess, I will always want my usual. Couldn't sleep?"

His playful demeanour dropped when he asked her that question, his arm resting on the wall behind her head. Adelaide sighed, resting against the wall, staring down at her feet as her smile dropped, shaking her head. "No, not this time."

DogNut sighed, not quite sure how to continue the conversation without making it awkward. "You need to sleep, y'know. This whole thing isn't just gonna go away if you stop sleeping."

"I know I need to sleep, you sound just like my mum." Adelaide forced herself to smile before pushing herself off the wall and continued to walk towards the café. "Oh, and don't call me princess; I've told you that every fucking day, DogShit."

"I do remember, princess. But that still won't stop me from doing it!"

Rolling her eyes, Adelaide gave him the finger as she continued to walk until she turned a corner that ended up being the café, then began looking through the various tins of food that were piled up against the wall. Using a notepad and a pen she'd found behind the desk, she began to write down things they were running low on and things the team needed more of.

Adelaide still remembered the day she met DogNut. She was in the middle of a fight to the death with three grown-ups, and she was losing. Her sword was falling apart, she couldn't feel her feet and worst of all; she knew she was going to die. But just as she was about to give up and allow the grown-ups to kill her, a loud battle cry distracted the grown-ups and a boy's voice brought her back. "Come with me if you want to live."

_**How bloody typical.** _

Admittedly, Adelaide had thought DogNut was kind of cute. Nothing more, and nothing less. But unfortunately for her, that small crush didn't seem to go away and only seemed to grow as the days went on – but she wouldn't tell him that, he'd probably mock her and brag about it to the entire group then she would die of embarrassment. So she had decided that she would keep it to herself until further notice – that further notice being until the day she died. It's like that movie she used to watch with her mum – Titanic – when she was feeling sad, "a woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets". She pushed those thoughts back – they would only make herself upset and there was nobody's shoulder she could cry on, not anymore. She was alone in this world and that wasn't likely to chance any time soon.

By the time the rest of the group were awake, Adelaide had already sorted through the tins of food and had begun to make everyone's breakfasts, making sure that the food she used was enough for just one helping and that there was enough to go around. Breakfast was slightly stale bread with peanut butter, a small helping of tinned baked beans then a small cup of flat Coca-Cola to wash it down. It wasn't much, but it would have to be enough to keep them going until they would be able to go out and get more supplies.

She handed each member their breakfasts with the best smile she could give them – giving Jordan the list in the process – before she sat down beside them to begin eating her own. Just as she was half way through her meal, three boys came towards her, complimenting her and telling her they enjoyed their meals.

A normal teenager would take the compliments and do whatever they wanted her to, but Adelaide knew exactly what their plan was, they'd pulled it over a hundred times and it never worked. They would tell her how pretty she looked that day and how much they enjoyed their food then ask if they could have some more – an obvious rule break.

Sighing, Adelaide took a small sip of her drink before speaking. "Boys, you know the rules; no second helpings. Flirt with me all you like, I'm still not giving you anymore. Now clear off before I shove you all off the roof."

Obviously, she was joking about shoving them off the roof, but it was enough to make them leave her alone and allow her to finish her meal in peace. After finishing, she placed all the leftover plates into a small bucket to be washed later before walking off back to bed.

She felt almost on the verge of passing out, which was a good thing since perhaps she would finally be able to have a peaceful sleep after what felt like an eternity of disturbed sleep.

Arriving back in her room, Adelaide kicked off her boots and shrugged out of her jacket before collapsing onto her bed, her eyes closing as she fell into a deep slumber, free from any of the horrors she had seen over the past few weeks.

She must have only been asleep for around an hour or two before she heard shouting and shuffling outside before one of the boys came into the room. "We got company, Addie, and Jordan wants you to be at the front of it."


	2. Chapter 2

It took Adelaide several moments of groaning and pushing from the boy to get her out of bed but eventually, she got out of bed and forced her feet into her boots and grabbed her jacket before leaving the room. Adelaide walked through the dark halls of the museum, following the sound of the voices.

No matter how nice the group at their doors may be, Adelaide would still be horrifically unreasonable with them – they woke her up from her nap and she was  _ **pissed**_. Sleep was fleeting in this new world and any undisturbed sleep was welcomed with open arms, so having those fleeting moments of sleep taken away was not appreciated.

By the time she arrived, DogNut was already within a heated debate with a member of the new group. Causing her to stand between them to break up the tension a little. "Before you two start making out, I'm going to have to break it up."

"Listen, lady, that's not what was happening-" a boy with light hair interrupted, a finger raising as if he was in class. Adelaide admitted that he was cute – but he had nothing on DogNut.

Wait,  _ **what**_?

What was she even saying?

_**You** _ _ **hate** _ _**DogNut, he's a jerk. He's not cute or handsome, he's just a jerk.** _

_**Now let's get back to the matters at hand, shall we?** _

"I don't give a flying fuck what was happening; you woke me up from the best sleep I've had in weeks, so you better have a fucking fantastic reason for doing so or I'll start removing body parts." Adelaide cut him off, her jaw clenching together as she tried to contain her anger.

DogNut placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn towards him a little. "Babe, you're scaring them-"

Adelaide wanted to snap at DogNut for his "babe" comment, but she knew she would only make the situation worse if she did so she kept quiet about it and turned towards the group instead, her lips pursing together as she raised a hand in DogNut's direction to stop him from speaking, shrugging off his hand. "Just… What the fuck do you want?"

"We just need a place to stay," a voice spoke up from near the back of the small crowd in front of her.

Just as Adelaide was about to give a sarcastic remark, she noticed who was speaking up. A blonde-haired girl had stepped forward and was in front of Adelaide and her whole angry demeanour dropped. "Holy shit, it's another chick. Make that four other chicks. You have no idea how nice it is to see other girls, at least now I might actually be allowed to do something."

The blonde's eyebrows fused together in confusion, her eyes narrowing a little. "Huh?"

Adelaide rolled her eyes. "Because I'm a girl, I'm not allowed to do anything dangerous – playing a huge part in keeping the human race alive and all. Apparently. Anyway, I'm not in charge here; you'd have to talk to Jordan – he's the one in charge here. I would get him, but it seems he's already here so if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed." She pushed DogNut and Jordan aside and stormed down the hallway, back to her bedroom.

After kicking off her boots and shimmied out of her jacket, Adelaide collapsed onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling above her. Despite only getting an hour or so of sleep, she didn't feel tired anymore. Almost as if she never truly felt tired in the first place, which annoyed her. All she wanted was sleep, but now that she was in a situation where she would get it, her body wouldn't allow her to sleep.

Her eyes closed and she was alone with her thoughts, that was when she fell into sleep… or something close to it.

_She saw her older brother in his bed, covered in sweat and nothing would make it go away. He was all she had left now; her parents had died a few hours earlier and she didn't even get to say goodbye. They had died by the time she had gone to get them fresh glasses of water and some ice packs – a job that would've taken moments._

_But she couldn't think of that, now. She had to make sure her brother was going to be okay, it was what her parents would've wanted her to do. She'd forced back her tears, focusing only on making sure her brother was comfortable and had everything he needed. She'd tried calling an ambulance, but the line was busy. Even the non-emergency line wasn't picking up her call. She was completely on her own, only going on various things she'd seen her mum do whenever she was sick._

_Even with her never leaving his side, her brother succumbed to the illness, too. He died in his sleep with Adelaide by his side, telling him that he was going to be okay._

Adelaide was woken up by someone gently shaking her arm and the feeling of someone's arms wrapping around her tightly, comforting her. When she opened her eyes, she realized she had been crying and that it was DogNut who was there, trying to sooth her. "It was  _ **him**_  again, wasn't it?"

She curled into his arms, her head buried in his shirt as she nodded, unsure of her own voice in that moment. All she could do was cry and hold onto DogNut as if her life depended upon it. She liked this side of DogNut, the guy who would hold her and tell her that she was okay when she had a nightmare – that was the version of him that she loved and wished that this side of him appeared more often.

They stayed there for several minutes until Adelaide stopped crying, but he refused to let her go until she would tell him. She looked up at him, her eyes locked with his. Before she fully realized it, their lips were touching. Their kiss was fleeting, only held for mere seconds before they pulled away. It was awkward, neither of them knowing if they truly had feeling for one another or if teenage hormones took over.

"I knew you secretly liked me," DogNut smirked, leaning in for another kiss before Adelaide pushed him away.

_**And he was back to being the jerk.** _

Adelaide moved out of his embrace, grabbing her boots to place them back on before grabbing her jacket from the floor and sliding off her bed. "Fuck off, Dog-Shit."

DogNut held a hand over his heart, pretending to be hurt. "Why must you hurt me in this way, princess?"

"I've told you a thousand times; do  _ **not**_  call me princess."

"And I'm pretty sure I wasn't listening."

"You're forgetting I'm in charge of your food and if you want to eat today, you better stop calling me princess."

"Understood,  _ **Adelaide**_."

Adelaide left the room after that, knowing that arguing with him would only make her upset again then nobody would comfort her. Walking through the halls, she placed her jacket on before walking towards the café, noticing the trio of girls at one of the tables.

She glared at the blonde, her arms folding over her chest. "No offence but you all look like shit. And smell of cheap perfume and teenage desperation. It's disgusting."

The blonde narrowed her eyes at Adelaide, mimicking her movements a little too well. "Same goes to you, witchy-boo."

Adelaide smirked, shaking her head a little. "Finally, we agree on something, blondie."

The blonde smirked too, moving her chair a little to allow Adelaide to sit with them. Adelaide grabbed a chair and sat with them, all feelings of anger and sadness from her conversation with DogNut completely leaving her. Over the next forty-five minutes, Adelaide got to talk with them about anything and everything. She learned their names; Brooke, Courtney and Aleshia and they were originally in France during the initial outbreak – lucky, as Adelaide had put it. They didn't get to see how bad it got in England, although they would beg to differ.

Just as Adelaide was about to make a start on everyone's food, Jordan requested her in his office which usually meant one thing; she was in deep shit and was probably being thrown out for doing something wrong. She excused herself from the group and walked into his office, feeling the anxiety rise within her.

"What's up, chief?" she asked, a faint smile on her lips as she tried to hide her nervousness.

Jordan looked up at her from the book he was reading, moving his glasses up his nose. "I need you to keep an eye on the new group, and if anything suspicious happens, you report it back to me."

Adelaide's eyebrows fused together in confusion, taking a step towards Jordan's desk. "Why me? I mean, there are other kids here to do that."

Jordan watched Adelaide walk towards him before he closed the book and walked over towards her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Because aside from DogNut, you're the only person I fully trust, Addie. You can do this."

Adelaide sighed, but reluctantly nodded her head. "Alright, fine, I'll keep an eye on them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brotp discovered; Adelaide and Brooke. Adelaide is just a straight up savage, that's basically her in a nutshell, to be honest.
> 
> I think I needed to put in more of Adelaide's backstory in this so I guess you got it – yes, I'm evil with it but someone's gotta do it.
> 
> bUT MY BABIES KISSED WDVKWNVWKNVWKVW.


	3. Chapter 3

Keeping an eye on the new group was surprisingly easy; they barely noticed Adelaide sneaking around behind them and listening in to their conversations. Nothing seemed to be suspicious, however, which frustrated her since it would've been nice to have some kind of gossip to give back to Jordan. There wasn't much she could do, anyway. She wasn't going to properly invade their conversations, that would just be too obvious and then it would be game over.

There was one thing concerning her; it was the boy spouting out nonsense about a lamb and a goat. Honestly, it was beginning to get on her nerves and hearing his annoying voice drone on and on about how the lamb would save them all made her want to jump off the roof of the nearest tall building and bring him down with her. She would've told Jordan this, but she was pretty sure that he would call the kid a crazy son of a gun who just escaped the loony bin.

But in this world; the crazies were the most dangerous while the sane were more likely to run and hide than do anything else.

While the group were out finding food, Adelaide had snuck back to her room and had a much-needed rest. She didn't sleep; she just rested her eyes and thought of home as she remembered it. She remembered her mother's perfume being sprayed on her clothes before she left the house for work, her father's laugh booming throughout the house whenever he would watch a comedian on TV, her brother screaming at his TV screen whenever he died while playing a video game.

That was home to her – full of life and love. But now her home was just an empty house with nothing inside but reminders of what life used to be like.

Opening her eyes, Adelaide reluctantly rolled herself out of bed and slipped into her boots before walking out of the room, leaving her jacket behind as she walked outside into the sunlight. She noticed most of the group were outside and a group of kids were running around outside; the perfect excuse to eavesdrop.

Leaning against the wall, Adelaide slowly slid down to the floor until she was sitting down on the concrete, bringing her knees into her chest as she watched the younger kids playing some kind of game with each other. It was nice to hear people having fun for the first time in what seemed like forever. She was so used to the silence that came with being alone in a museum with nine other boys, she'd forgotten what fun sounded like. She stayed there for a while, her eyes closed as she listened to the sound of the children's laughter.

"What's up with you and DogNut?" Brooke's voice spoke in front of her, bringing her back into reality.

Adelaide opened one eye to see the trio of girls in front of her, identically having their hands on their hips as they almost glared down at Adelaide, their eyes narrowing a little. "What?"

Brooke almost laughed as she sat down on the concrete beside Adelaide, Courtney and Aleshia sitting beside her. "Don't look so clueless, there's something going on between you – don't even deny it."

Adelaide rolled her eyes, laying her legs flat on the ground as she inwardly groaned. "You disturb me from my moment of calm to ask me about King Dickward?"

Brooke nudged Adelaide's shoulder, sliding over towards her. "Don't try to hide it, witchy-boo. I can tell from the way he looks at you it's weird… he looks at you and everything else just seems to disappear like, you're the only thing that matters."

Adelaide glared in Brooke's direction, her jaw clenching as her lips pursed together. "Okay, first things first, blondie; DogShit looks at every girl like that, I'm not anything special. Second; there is nothing going on between us, he's a jerk and I hate his guts. Plus, I'm pretty sure Courtney's going all gooey-eyed over him and frankly, she can have him – I don't care."

She knew one day she would regret saying that but it was just how she felt at the time; indifferent towards him. Sure, she had kissed him and she admitted that she did think he was cute but there were others in the world that Adelaide would probably find that were better than him. Although; until all the grown-ups were gone, Adelaide was sure that nobody was truly in the mood to be in a relationship.

Perhaps when everything was safe, people would be ready to be in a relationship with others. But there was a possibility that the world would never truly be free from the grown-ups.

Shaking her head to herself to rid herself of all those thoughts, Adelaide pushed herself off the ground and walked back inside and was going to go back to bed until it would be time for dinner. Once she was inside, she noticed something had changed the screaming laughter she heard from the kids while playing a game turned into screams of terror behind her.

Once she heard the screaming, Adelaide turned around and vaulted over the bench outside the door and charged at top speed towards Frédérique. She pushed Frédérique back with such force, both girls fell backwards. With almost unhuman speed, Adelaide jumped back onto her feet to hold Frédérique down to allow Brooke to bring the younger children inside and away from Frédérique.

Adelaide placed her arm over Frédérique's throat, holding her down onto the ground but still allowed her to breathe. She noticed Frédérique was trying to bite into her arm – she seemed more like one of the grown-ups than a kid and that terrified her more than anything. Making sure Frédérique was held down, Adelaide turned back towards the doors when she saw the kids being held back by Brooke and Courtney, all of them clearly terrified. Some of the kids had tears streaming down their cheeks, especially the little boy Frédérique had bitten into. She looked at them for a moment before turning back to Frédérique and tried harder to make sure she wasn't bitten. Not an easy task since she was wearing a t-shirt and her jacket was still in her bedroom but she knew she needed to try to protect those kids from the monster one of them had become, and she would've died for them in that moment. "Brooke, get Jordan! And hurry, I don't know how much longer I can hold her down!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can tell already that the first part will be pretty short like I think there will only be about 5 chapters in total with this part but the second part will be longer, I promise!
> 
> Sorry this chapter is so short (I think the next chapter will be too) but it's all building up to the battle at the end of The Dead which would be pretty long then we would get into part two.


	4. Chapter 4

Adelaide was sat on the cold floor of the museum, watching the door of the storeroom Frédérique had been locked inside. She'd sat there for almost an hour, her eyes completely fixated on the door. If Frédérique escaped, Adelaide would be the first line of defence against her and would stop at nothing to protect her people – even if that meant killing her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brooke sitting down beside her, their knees touching as Brooke moved closer to her. Adelaide didn't look at Brooke, her eyes still fixed on the door, completely unmoving.

"How's Froggie?" Adelaide asked finally, licking her lips slowly.

Brooke shrugged, looking between Adelaide and the door. "He's okay…. He's still pretty shaken up but he's okay. He'll have a pretty nasty bruise but that's about it."

Adelaide nodded once, relieved that he wasn't too badly hurt. "We can't let this happen again; she's too dangerous. We have to do something."

"What do you propose we do?"

"I don't know, I'll have to ask Jordan or Ed, when he gets back."

Just as Adelaide finished that sentence, the sound of an argument came through the halls, causing both girls to turn towards the sound and stand up. They looked at each other once before walking towards the sounds of the argument.

Adelaide saw the new arrivals along with Ed (who frankly had seen better days). She noticed one of them staring at her; his dark – almost black hair – made him stand out from the crowd. She would've called him handsome but there was something that didn't seem quite right with him. Adelaide narrowed her eyes at the new arrivals. "I'm sorry, but who the  _ **fuck**_  are you?"

"David King, but you can call me your future husband," David almost smirked at her, taking her hand and pressing a gentle kiss to the top of it.

Adelaide looked at David for a moment before she reached across and slapped him across the face, the sound of the slap echoing through the room, causing the entire room to stare at Adelaide who shrugged her shoulders. "Act like a bitch, get slapped like a bitch."

David massaged his cheek which hurt from the slap but that didn't stop the smirk from coming onto his lips once again. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?"

Adelaide almost growled under her breath as she tried to get another hit in but Jordan stepped between her and David, but even that didn't stop her from trying. In the end, Jordan had to wrap his arms tightly around her and physically remove her from the room, kicking and screaming the entire way. She was placed in her room with the door slammed shut behind her, allowing her to calm down.

An hour later; Adelaide sat on her bed, cross-legged and staring at her hands. She'd calmed down by that point but she still wanted to smash that stupid grin off David's face until her knuckles bled and his face was unrecognisable. It was kind of fucked up, but that was just how she felt.

Her door opened, causing her to stand up from her bed, expecting it to be DogNut but relaxed when it turned out to be Jordan. She noticed he looked tense as he slowly closed the door behind him, whatever he was going to say, it wasn't going to be good news.

Adelaide slowly walked towards him, unsure of how she should react around him. "What's wrong?" She asked, her eyebrows fusing together. She noticed he was holding something in his hands but she didn't ask about it, thinking that it had nothing to do with her.

Jordan sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. "There's a fire heading our way… most of us are evacuating and going over the bridge to be safe, I've arranged for you to go as well."

"What about you?"

"A captain doesn't abandon his ship."

Adelaide didn't say anything as she nodded, understanding why Jordan would want to stay behind.

Before she could speak up again, Jordan handed Adelaide a machine gun and a small box of ammunition. "You've earned it, shorty."

Adelaide held the gun and the ammunition for a minute before she placed them on her bed. She smiled as she forced back her tears and she gave Jordan a tight hug, her eyes shutting tightly. "May we meet again."

Jordan didn't say anything as he hugged Adelaide back, his chin resting on the top of her head before pressing a kiss to the side of her forehead. "We will, I promise you that we'll see each other again. But you need to pack up your things, everyone's going to be leaving soon."

Adelaide nodded slowly, releasing him from her grasp and he left the room, once again closing the door behind him. Once he left, Adelaide fell back onto her bed and looked around her room. Something was telling her that this would be the last time she would be in that room – or at least for a while. She felt like crying, crawling up into a small ball on her bed and just crying until there were no tears left.

But she didn't.

Instead of crying, Adelaide forced herself off her bed and began to force as many of her belongings into her large camping backpack as she could. She packed up enough clothes for about two weeks, some books she had been given by the other boys to keep her entertained and various photo albums from her house. She took one last look around her room before leaving, bringing the gun and the ammunition with her.

Once outside, she placed her belongings into the back of the truck before moving towards the front to place her gun on the chair so she could sit next to Brooke. The blonde gave her a gentle smile as she reached a hand out to Adelaide. "You ready to go?"

Adelaide looked at her hand for a moment before looking back at the museum to see DogNut outside watching the truck. "Wait!" Adelaide pushed through the small crowd to get to DogNut. When she reached him, she pressed her lips to his and kept them there for several seconds before pulling away. "Come with me," she whispered against his lips.

DogNut's jaw clenched as his eyes shut, his forehead resting against hers while his fingers tangled in her hair, his head shaking. "I can't, you know I can't. If I don't see you again, I just want you to know that I-"

"I know," Adelaide cut him off, shaking her head. "We will meet again, no matter what happens."

"I'll be waiting."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be the last in this part – the battle at Lambeth Bridge and will be a lot longer than this chapter.
> 
> This is trash but I'm kind of in a hurry with this story because feels and I've basically finished writing the last part of this story already whoopsidoodles, well at least the opening part of it. Plus, a friend and I have brainstormed an idea for a AU to do with this story and I'll post it once I've completed this story.


	5. Chapter 5

Sitting in the front seat, Adelaide had a first-hand view of what was going on in front of her. She saw hundreds of kids desperately trying to run towards Lambeth Bridge to escape the fire but in all the chaos and confusion, some kids were going the wrong way or stopping in the middle of the road to look where to go.

Watching them, she couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty for being inside the safety of the truck while kids far younger than her were outside and left to fend for themselves. The truck was just about to make its way onto the bridge but came to a halt when the bridge was a chaotic mess of fleeing kids and abandoned cars.

Adelaide watched as David's boys forced kids to move cars while Ed tried to assemble a team to hold back sickos that were coming up the road behind them. Her fingertips glided over her gun as she watched the pandemonium unfold in front of her, unsure how she should react.

After watching David harass other kids, Adelaide knew she'd had enough of sitting back and watching the action from inside the safety of the truck.

"I've had enough of this shit," Adelaide muttered under her breath, grabbing her gun and opening the door. "Keep going, I'll catch you up!" Adelaide told Brooke and Justin, jumping out of the truck and slamming the door behind her. She ran through the confusing crowd of kids, being careful not to push anyone over as she ran towards Ed.

Ed turned to help a little girl but stopped when he saw Adelaide. "Addie! What the hell are you doing? Get back in the truck!"

Adelaide shook her head, taking more steps forward. "I want to help!"

"DogNut's going to kill me if you get hurt." Ed sighed, his hand rubbing over his face.

Adelaide stopped for a moment at his words. Had he made a deal with DogNut to ensure her survival? He must have done, DogNut basically admitted to her that he liked her and he didn't want anything bad to happen to her – it made sense that he would make a deal with Ed to make sure that Adelaide was unharmed. "Fuck him, he's not here! And I'm helping whether you like it or not."

Ed would've protested but he knew that there wasn't time for it – they needed to do something to fight against the sickos, and they needed to do it now. Ed ran towards the fighters, leaving Adelaide to help kids in the right direction to safety.

Deciding that now wasn't the time to argue, Adelaide reluctantly agreed before realizing the kids weren't as dumb as they seemed and actually knew where they were supposed to be going. Leaving the kids to find their own way to safety, Adelaide jumped on top of a cab to get a better view of what was happening; the fighters were losing and needed help quickly but nobody would help them. She looked down at the gun in her hands and it all became clear of what she needed to do.

_**Take a deep breath, Addie, drown out every other sound that's around you, they will do nothing but distract you. Just pretend it's a video game – you're not Adelaide anymore, you're Zoey from Left 4 Dead; and this is your final checkpoint before you can escape to the next level.** _

_**Focus on your target and squeeze the trigger.** _

Adelaide opened her eyes and gripped her gun tighter. "Everyone, get down!" she screamed, aiming her machine gun at the sickos in front of her. Ed repeated her words, making sure the kids were down before she started firing. Her aim wasn't perfect but she was able to hit a sicko with almost every single bullet that left the chamber. She heard someone screaming, it took her a while to realize that she was the one who was screaming, her throat hurting a little from how long and how loud she was screaming. Once the last bullet left her gun, there were at least twenty bodies of sickos with bullet holes in their heads, puss and blood seeping out of them.

Adelaide placed down her gun, jumping off the cab and ran to be beside Ed, almost completely breathless but forced herself to smile. "Did I do good, cap?"

Ed gave her a tired smile back, a hand resting on her shoulder. "You did good."

Their relief was short-lived as another wave of sickos came their way, causing the pair to look towards the small group of fighters. Adelaide pushed Ed towards the group. "Go! I'll catch you up, I just need to put this back."

Leaving Ed to face the sickos, Adelaide sprinted back to the truck, forcing the door open and throwing her gun inside before slamming the door shut again, assuring Brooke that she would return. Watching the truck slowly move on, she picked up a discarded sword from the ground, twirling it in her fingers before looking back up to the road ahead of her to see sickos slowly making their way towards her.

Taking a short breath, Adelaide began walking through the crowed of panicked kids, her eyes fixed on the small army of fighters trying to fight back against the sickos. Her walk slowly turned into a jog.

Then a run.

Then a sprint.

With a loud battle cry, Adelaide raised her sword and slammed it down into the chest of a mother, watching blood and puss seep out of the open wound in her chest. The mother let out a shriek and lunged at Adelaide, her nails scraping against Adelaide's cheek before she had a chance to duck. Growling, Adelaide raised her sword again and slashed at her neck before moving onto her head and finally defeating her.

Blowing a strand of hair out of her face, she looked up to see the familiar dark hair she had grown used to. DogNut. She couldn't help but smile a little when she saw him, her heart melting like butter on hot toast. "DogNut?"

At hearing his name from  _ **her**_  lips, DogNut's head snapped up to see Adelaide. He couldn't stop his heart from skipping a beat inside his chest seeing her not only on the other side of the army of sickos but fighting – something he'd told Ed to keep her away from at all costs but it was clear she was too damn stubborn to listen to him. "Adelaide?"

Adelaide dropped her sword and ran towards DogNut, almost in tears, her hand reaching out to his. Just as her fingers were about to touch his, she was pushed back and fell backwards, hitting her head on the street below her with a little too much force for her liking.

Cringing at the pain, she forced herself to her feet and tried to fight her way through the crowd to get to DogNut. She realized that she didn't want to go with Brooke – she wanted to stay with DogNut. She also realized that the feelings she had for him were a hell of a lot stronger than anything else in her life, now she just needed to tell him.

But after the battle, of course.

She felt arms around her, pulling her backwards, towards the truck and away from DogNut. She tried to fight back and scream but nothing seemed to work, the arms around her weren't going to give up. Tears blurred her vision as she slowly stopped fighting and allowed the arms to force her back into the truck, her eyes fixed on DogNut's face.

The last thing she saw of DogNut and the rest of the group was the boat floating down the Thames before the van moved around the corner and she could no longer see him or the rest of the group.

 

_**END OF PART ONE...** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ADELAIDE WITH A MACHINE GUN IS MY FUCKING ASTHETIC – FUCKING SLAY ME MOM. I basically just had a whole load of Skrillex playing while I wrote this so that probably explains most of the badassery in this.
> 
> The next part will take place during The Fear (aka my death) and I can't wait for you guys to read it!
> 
> I know things aren't 100% correct in this but I'm tired and drunk on chocolate mousse and sushi so leaf me alone.


	6. Chapter 6

_**PART TWO** _

 

_**THE FEAR** _

 

"I hate the way you talk to me,

and the way you cut your hair.

I hate the way you drive my car,

I hate it when you stare.

I hate your big dumb combat boots,

and the way you read my mind.

I hate you so much it makes me sick,

it even makes me rhyme.

I hate the way you're always right,

I hate it when you lie.

I hate it when you make me laugh,

even worse when you make me cry.

I hate it when you're not around and the fact that you didn't call,

but mostly I hate the way I don't hate you, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all."

* * *

_**ONE YEAR LATER…** _

 

The sound of crying woke Adelaide up from her light slumber, sighing to herself as she knew whose cries they belonged to. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Adelaide lit a small lantern that rested beside her bed and quietly made her way through the quiet room to locate the crying girl without waking up any of the other sleeping children that littered the floor around her feet.

Placing her lantern down on the floor, Adelaide kneeled beside the crying girl and gently began to shake her awake. "Esme? Esme, hey, you're dreaming, you're okay. You're just dreaming," she gently whispered, being careful not to startle her.

Esme's eyes slowly opened as she turned to Adelaide, quickly clinging to Adelaide as if her life depended upon it. "It was her… it was my mum," she spoke in a small voice, her breathing heavy as she clung to Adelaide. Adelaide licked her lips as she paused for a moment, knowing far too well what Esme meant.

Adelaide had found Esme almost two months ago; scared out of her mind and half-starved. She'd spent the last year in her house, only going out when she needed food from her neighbour's houses. When everything went to hell; her mother tried to protect her by stock piling tinned food and keeping the windows and doors locked but that didn't stop her from getting sick. Esme's mother wasn't one of the lucky ones who died from the infection; she changed almost overnight.

Esme had to be saved by her next-door neighbour Maya when Esme's mother tried to kill her, leaving the poor child traumatised for life. Maya got sick, too, but allowed Esme to come and go between their houses whenever she pleased.

That was the last Esme ever saw of Maya; she got into her car to get some petrol and never came back, leaving Esme in her house alone for almost a year before Adelaide found her while she was on a supply run. Esme had run to her and hugged her so hard, Adelaide was sure she cut off her blood supply. She refused to let Adelaide go, screaming and crying whenever someone tried to separate them.

Adelaide pursed her lips together, her eyes closing for a moment as she held onto Esme. "I know, sweetheart, but she can't hurt you anymore. You're safe with me, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise. It was just a dream, try to go back to sleep, okay?"

Adelaide rocked Esme in her arms, humming a soft lullaby into her ear to try to sooth her before pressing a gentle kiss into her hair. Esme was a few years younger than Adelaide and clung to her like a small child to a teddy bear, not that Adelaide really minded. She somewhat enjoyed being her surrogate mother of sorts; it gave her something to fight for and a reason to come back to the museum after every run when she would want to run off and find DogNut.

Once Esme was safely back asleep, Adelaide gently laid her back in her bed and pressed another kiss to her forehead before leaving her, taking her lantern with her. Instead of going back to bed, Adelaide walked through the empty halls until she reached the roof access staircase. Quietly opening the door, she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

Arriving at the roof, Adelaide felt a chill go up her spine as the cold spring air hit her, making her shiver a little as she regretted not wearing her jacket over her vest, shorts and socks which acted as her pyjamas. But it was far too late to do anything about it now.

She walked slowly towards the edge of the roof, stopping several feet before the drop and placed her lantern down before sitting down as well. Sitting on the roof, Adelaide brought her knees into her chest and rested her chin on her knees. She spent most of her time up there, undisturbed by the other kids. Ever since she arrived, Adelaide spent more time on the roof than in her own room or anywhere else in the museum.

She usually went up there to be alone or to think about DogNut – something she'd started to do a lot more often. She missed him terribly and she desperately wanted him back in her life but a part of her knew that he had moved on and forgotten about her. She'd replayed that last moment she had with him inside her head over and over thousands of times and it always ended the same way; he went down the Thames, she stayed with the truck.

She stayed up there until dawn, watching the sky slowly lighten above her. Sighing a little, she stood up and picked up her lantern before making her way back down towards her bedroom to sleep.

By the time she woke up, her thoughts of DogNut never subsided, like every night. She dressed and headed through the museum to have some breakfast – one that wasn't made by her. That wasn't her job anymore.

Gone are the days when Adelaide was part of the kitchen staff and deemed too valuable to be able to fight; after Lambeth Bridge, Adelaide was placed into the fighters group and taught how to fight, quickly becoming one of the museum's most valuable fighters. She still had her machine gun Jordan gave her but she never used it, instead, she used a set of throwing knives and a baseball bat with nails in it.

Along with her role in life, Adelaide's wardrobe had changed dramatically, too. Needing more space in her clothing to move around now that she was a fighter, Kwanele made her the "perfect" battle outfit. It comprised of denim shorts, a black tank top, combat boots, fishnet tights and a denim jacket – a drastic contrast to her old t-shirt and jeans.

She'd gotten closer to Brooke in the year since the battle; but Adelaide knew that the now brunette Brooke didn't want anyone to replace Aleshia and Courtney so the pair didn't get too close. And anyway, Brooke was always busy being another mother to every small kid while Adelaide was busy killing every sicko that came near the museum and going out on supply runs.

After getting herself some food, Adelaide sat in one of the many armchairs that had been placed around the hall and began to eat slowly until she saw Esme bounding towards her, a wide smile on her face. Esme sat down in front of Adelaide, hairbrush in one hand and some hair-ties and clips in another. Adelaide sighed a little but picked up the hairbrush and began to brush through Esme's hair, her eyes fixed on the room around them.

As she was braiding Esme's hair, she noticed Hayley across the room. Over the past few months; Adelaide had kind of been seeing her. And by kind of they'd kissed a few times and there were some romantic feelings there but both of them knew it wouldn't go anywhere. Adelaide was still hung up on DogNut and Hayley didn't even want a relationship – but they still enjoyed each other's company.

Adelaide sent a series of hand gestures towards Hayley, making sure that she was looking.  _ **I see you, don't try to pretend you're not stalking me.**_

Hayley rolled her eyes, mouthing words back.  _ **Are you free later?**_

Adelaide shook her head, sending more hand gestures across the room.  _ **Killing sickos is my job, I won't come back until dusk. You know that.**_

Hayley hit the side of her head, like she'd forgotten something before smiling.  _ **Of course I do, babes. I remember everything; rooftop tonight?**_

Adelaide shrugged, taking a bite of her now slightly stale food.  _ **I'll think about it.**_

Hayley nodded.  _ **They're waiting for you, by the way.**_

Adelaide looked down at Esme's braids, finishing tying the second before looking back up to Hayley and nodding a  _ **thank you**_. "Alright, Leia. You are done, you're free from my grasp."

Esme jumped up from the floor, taking the hairbrush from Adelaide. The smile on her face dropping as she looked at Adelaide. "You have to go, don't you?"

Adelaide sighed, nodding her head as she stood up from her chair. "Yeah, I gotta go, Esme. But I'll be back, I promise."

Esme almost looked as if she was going to cry as she grabbed onto Adelaide tightly. "You better come back, or there's gonna be trouble."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Blackest Day by Lana Del Rey and Faded by Alan Walker were on repeat while I wrote this chapter, I think they just fit Adelaide's character after everything with DogNut.
> 
> Let's be honest, Mama Adelaide is everything tbh. DogNut will return in the next chapter, I promise! aND BISEXUAL ADELAIDE IS RISING AND I AM NOT SORRY FOR THIS.
> 
> Sorry this took longer than usual, I've been focusing on script writing and writing my own zombie book and they've been taking up a lot of my time – but I hope this was worth the wait!
> 
> Dedicated to Adelaide's wifey Esme.


	7. Chapter 7

When Adelaide returned later that evening, her blood-covered face and hands said it all, she didn't need words to tell anyone what had happened. They were ambushed while they were in a nearby Tesco's and barely stood a chance against the sickos. Their group of seven had been split up with one half being in the front of the shop while the other half was at the back in the store room and collecting as many tins as possible. Adelaide was somewhat lucky to be at the front of the shop when it happened but it didn't help much.

She tried to fight off as many of them as she could but some of them slipped past her and got to her friends at the back of the shop before she had the chance to kill them. Once she killed the sickos around her and was assured by the rest of the group that they had the area covered, she ran to the back to help her friends but it was too late. Out of the three that went, only one of them survived the initial attack but he didn't come out unscathed. The boy – Jared – was pale and looked on the verge of passing out.

Adelaide kneeled beside Jared and looked at the large cut on the side of his face, being careful not to touch it as she examined it. "You'll be okay, it'll take a few days to heal but other than that you should be okay."

Jared shook his head, lifting his hand up to reveal a bite mark that was aggressively seeping blood over his arm and onto the floor. "I'm going to be one of them, you should go before I hurt you and everyone else."

Adelaide shook her head, forcing back her tears as she placed a hand over the bite mark to try to stop the bleeding. "No, no. You don't know that, you're gonna be fine. You're not gonna be one of them, I won't let you."

Jared forced back his tears, too, not wanting his leader to see him cry. "Even if I don't turn into one of them, Justin would turn me into one of his lab rats. Just let me go, Addie. It's over for me." A single tear fell down his cheek as he brought out a pistol he kept in his pocket and held it in his shaking hand.

Adelaide was crying by this point, unable to stop the sobbing from leaving her lips. "I'm so sorry, I should've got there faster."

Jared wiped away Adelaide's tears with his finger before she moved her head away. "Don't be sorry, I should've kept a lookout."

Adelaide couldn't speak as her sobbing only made incomprehensible nonsense leave her lips, she held onto his hand tightly. Her eyes closed and the sound of a gunshot rang inside her ears as she felt a warm liquid spray over her face and she knew it was all over.

She was still in shock when she came back to the museum, not quite sure how she should react. She gave her weapons in and jogged into the nearest toilets, slamming the door behind her. Looking at the mirror in front of her, she could see her face covered in Jared's blood. Looking down at her hands and they were covered in blood too, causing her to go into a panic and grabbed a damp flannel next to the sink and scrubbed at her hands and face until the once white flannel was now dark red with blood.

Adelaide came out of the toilets almost half an hour later, all trace of her tears and blood were gone but Adelaide knew that it would take a lot more than that to be okay again.

She had some food, but barely talked out what had happened. Hayley kept Esme out of it, not wanting to allow her to see or hear the horrors that were outside the doors. Adelaide sent Esme to bed, giving her a short bedtime story before promising that she would spend the whole day with her the next day and that seemed to satisfy Esme.

Once Esme was safely asleep, Adelaide walked around the empty halls of the museum, a small glass of alcohol in her hands. Several weeks beforehand, she and one of the other fighters – Hanna – found several bottles of assorted alcohol ranging from whiskey to tequila. The pair decided to keep the alcohol to themselves and casually drink through the bottles whenever they felt like they needed it.

She made her way through towards the main entrance, deciding to start conversations with various older kids that hung out there. She talked with a couple of slightly older kids about anything they could think of. The trio quickly noticed a large commotion at the main entrance as a group of kids ran inside, all of them obviously terrified and out of breath.

Brooke greeted them, lantern in her hand and asked the group various questions but got no reply. She tried again but got no answer again until a boy spoke up. "I'm sorry, what? Did you say something, babes?"

The moment Adelaide heard his voice, her heart skipped multiple beats inside her chest, causing her to drop the glass she was holding and sprint through the crowds of kids that surrounded her. Hot tears fell down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around DogNut's body, causing him to fall back a little, not quite realizing who it was before he hugged her back, his face burying in the crook of her neck.

"Did you miss me that much, princess?" His voice was hoarse a little and he was completely breathless as he smiled. As much as he didn't want to admit it, but finally being reunited with Adelaide made the trek across London worth it.

Adelaide smiled through her tears as she slowly came out of the hug, her hands resting on his cheeks. She was going to answer but before she had the chance, she felt his lips on hers. It wasn't the soft kiss they'd shared back at the Imperial War Museum, this was harder, more urgent. The kind that simply said, "I'd been waiting a year to do that".

When they parted, Adelaide was the one who was breathless, her heart almost exploding out of her chest as she rested her forehead against DogNut's, her eyes closing. "You're here," she whispered, her arms kept around him.

DogNut looked back at her, pressing a gentle peck to her lips as he kept the smile on his lips. "Now you can't get rid of me, looks like you're stuck with me."

Adelaide didn't say anything as she hugged DogNut again, completely unaware of the death glare Courtney was giving her over her shoulder – looking as if she was ready to kill both of them; especially Adelaide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to deviate slightly from the book so DogNut stays at the museum a little longer but it will get back to the proper story soon.
> 
> But my babies are back together so everything will be okay… for now at least hehehe.
> 
> In all honesty; I might take a break from writing this story and writing in general. Not because I'm not enjoying this story – believe me, I am, I love writing this story – it's just that my mental health isn't exactly the best right now and I think I'll just take some time off to look after myself. Sorry for boring you with my problems – just thought I would let you guys know what's going on.


	8. Chapter 8

Adelaide didn't sleep much that night; either from the excitement knowing DogNut was back or from having Jared die right in front of her, she didn't know. But her night was a restless one – her dreams were mixed between seeing DogNut again and hearing the gun go off and Jared's death. In the end, the only way she managed to survive the night and get some sleep was to scream at her inner demons and fall into a world of darkness.

At breakfast, she was basically a zombie; she barely ate or spoke to anyone and everyone knew not to try to interact with her. Things like that usually happened whenever someone died, and it wasn't something people tended to talk about.

Giving her untouched food to another kid, she requested that once DogNut was awake and had been fed to meet her on the roof. After returning to her room to collect a book and a bottle of alcohol, she slowly made her way towards the roof to wait for DogNut.

Ignoring her book, Adelaide focused solely on the alcohol – despite how disgusting it tasted. It helped her forget all the bad things that happened. If only her parents could see her now; she'd turned into an insomniac with a dependency on alcohol to deal with her issues, they'd disown her in a heartbeat.

"Romeo and Juliet? Never pictured you as the literary type." DogNut's voice brought Adelaide back to reality from her thinking. He sat down next to her, her slightly battered copy of Romeo and Juliet in his hand.

Adelaide smiled softly, moving in closer to him, bringing the bottle with her and placing it between them. "Yeah, well, times have changed."

DogNut looked between Adelaide and the bottle between them, shrugging his shoulders as he mentally thought " _ **screw it**_ " and had a small mouthful. The disgusting tasting liquid hit his throat quickly, causing him to cough and struggle to almost breathe while Adelaide couldn't help but laugh.

"It takes some getting used to!" she laughed, taking the bottle from him and taking a drink from it before placing it down away from him.

"That is disgusting! Why do you drink that?"

"It saves water!"

The pair looked at each other and burst into laughter, unable to stop themselves. For once in what seemed like forever, they felt like kids again. Just two normal teenagers laughing and having fun without a care in the world. Adelaide wished it would stay like that but she knew that these fleeting moments of happiness were just that – fleeting, and sooner or later they would have to return to their normality of killing sickos and everyday fighting for their survival.

Their laughter died down soon enough and both were left in silence until DogNut spoke up again. "How've you been?"

The moment he asked that question, all trace of laughter was gone and Adelaide's demeanour changed almost immediately. Adelaide shook her head, looking out over London as she composed herself, trying to keep her emotions to herself. She couldn't explain it but whenever she was with DogNut, she felt as if she could pour her heart out to him and he wouldn't abandon her like she guessed most people would. "I've been okay… I'm basically the best fighter here so I guess I'm a badass now, I suppose."

Once DogNut noticed that Adelaide on the verge of tears, he placed an arm around her shoulders and brought her in closer to him. "Hey, you're okay. You're okay, I'm here."

Adelaide buried her face in the crook of DogNut's neck, clinging onto his shirt. Taking a shaky breath, she moved her head to rest on his shoulder. "I'm trying... I'm trying all the time but everyone's counting on me and it's so hard."

DogNut pressed a gentle kiss to Adelaide's forehead, his eyes closing as he rested his forehead against hers, his thumbs brushing away her tears. "I'm here now, you don't have to do this alone."

Instead of speaking, Adelaide looked at DogNut and did the only thing she thought she could. She kissed him. Softly at first, testing the waters, but once he kissed her back it got more serious.

Their kiss quickly became heated, with Adelaide slowly moving to sit on DogNut's lap while his arms kept around her waist. The pair were so engrossed in each other that they didn't notice or hear the door being opened and someone stepping onto the roof until they spoke up.

"Addie-"

_**Goddammit, Justin.** _

Adelaide groaned internally as she reluctantly ended the kiss, shooting a glare towards Justin. "I'm a little busy right now, can't you tell?"

Justin stood there awkwardly, trying not to look at the compromising position Adelaide and DogNut were in while also trying to look Adelaide in the face. "Sorry, ma'am, but there's a group of sickos coming our way and we need you."

Adelaide rolled her eyes and took a large gulp of alcohol from the bottle beside her, cringing a little as the bitter taste of alcohol went down her throat before she placed the bottle back down, screwing the lid back on. "Alright, let's do this. And call me ma'am one more time and I'll rip your head off and use it as target practice."

She moved off DogNut's lap and stood back up, straightening her shirt out before she stormed off the roof and back down the stairs, DogNut and Justin following close behind her. Adelaide walked through the museum, trying her hair up into a tight ponytail but leaving a few strands around her face. It was safe to say that she was angry; she'd finally gotten some alone time with DogNut and they'd been interrupted by king cockblock himself.

Adelaide picked up her baseball bat and attached her knives to her belt before removing her jacket and let it fall to the floor, not saying a word to anyone as various people were giving her orders.

"Six of them are coming – four mothers and two fathers."

"Aim for the head, make it a clean cut."

Their voices weren't entirely going into Adelaide's brain – she'd heard them a million times before and she knew what she was doing, she didn't need to be told again. She turned to DogNut and pressed a kiss to his lips, a small smile on her face. "I'll be back."

As Adelaide walked out towards the main gates to fight off the sickos, Justin led DogNut up towards a balcony to watch – mostly to make sure that all the sickos were dead after she as finished but to see if they needed to call in backup.

Once on the balcony, DogNut looked between Adelaide and the sickos and Justin. "Listen, buddy, I just got my girlfriend back after a year of thinking she was gone and you're sending her out alone to fight against six of those things? Are you completely insane?"

Justin kept his eyes on Adelaide, a slight smirk on his lips as he watched her prepare. "She can handle it, just watch. She's our best fighter, next to Jackson, of course."

DogNut sighed, gripping the edge of the balcony as he swore under his breath. He felt a hand gently squeeze his shoulder and saw Courtney standing beside him, giving him a comforting smile. He smiled back for a second before focusing back on Adelaide.

On the ground, Adelaide closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her thundering heart before she did a short sprint before surprising everyone by throwing one of her knives, hitting one of the mother's square between the eyes, causing her to let out a shriek as she went down.

_**One down, five to go.** _

Twirling her bat in her hands, Adelaide sprinted towards the group and smashed the nails against a father's head as hard as she possibly could. A mixture of blood and puss spilled from the large wound in the side of his head, spraying the side of Adelaide's face and the street below their feet. She knew that blow wasn't enough to kill him, it just disfigured him and slowed him down.

Kicking the father back, Adelaide swung her bat at a mother beside her, hitting its arm and knocking it clean off, blood dripping from what was left of her arm. In any other world, Adelaide would've been disgusted but she was used to it by this point; she'd seen it every single day since she'd become a fighter.

The fight became blurred to her, and she barely registered what was going on until the grown-ups around her were dead and she was almost on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.

There was one grown-up left and Adelaide had to almost force herself to carry on and finish the job. Blowing a piece of fallen hair out of her face, she took a deep breath before forcing one of her knives out of one of the grown-ups and sprinting towards the last grown-up.

Adelaide let out a loud scream as she charged towards the last grown-up, tackling the mother to the ground and slashing her knife into the mother relentlessly, not caring that her face was now being completely coated in blood.

Once she was done with her knife, Adelaide needed to make sure the grown-up was properly taken care of. Placing her hands on the sides of its head, she thrust her thumbs into its eyes and forced them through the sockets until blood was pouring out of them and the mother stopped moving.

Taking a deep breath, she got off the grown-up and slowly made her way through the carnage to retrieve her weapons to go back inside and wash off the blood she was now completely coated in.

 

On the balcony, DogNut was completely speechless. He had no idea that Adelaide –  _ **his**_  princess – was capable of taking down six grown-ups without getting killed in the process. She was ruthless, and he  _ **loved**_  it. Somewhere in his teenage brain, that just made her a hell of a lot hotter than she already was.

"I did tell you she was our best fighter." Justin said, breaking the silence as he kept his eyes on Adelaide. As much as he hated to admit it – Adelaide was by far their greatest asset and he would do almost anything to make sure that she stayed with their group.

After seeing the fight, Courtney hated to admit it but prissy Adelaide was one hell of a fighter, it scared her a little, actually. Now she understood why DogNut liked her so much but that still didn't stop the jealousy from rising within her.

Adelaide walked slowly back inside the museum, handing over her weapons to one of the kids to have them cleaned before she promptly collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.

After being on the floor for several minutes, a hand was extended out to her and she took it, slowly sitting up at first before standing back up. She smiled when she was once again in the arms of DogNut, her forehead resting against his.

"That was awesome," he whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek.

Adelaide nodded, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms. Licking her lips, finally spoke up. "Listen, it's Esme's birthday today and we're kind of throwing a party for her tonight and I was wondering if you wanted to come. You don't have to, like, I get it if you think it's dumb-"

"Babe, if you're there, I'm there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can thank Stripes213 for this chapter since talking to him and reading his story (The Rising (ya'll should check it out on fanfiction)) inspired me to get past my mental bullshit and write more on this story, and include Adelaide being a boss ass bitch.
> 
> And Esme for the whole roof scene, tbh.
> 
> Hope this extra-long chapter makes up for my absence.
> 
> Until next time;


	9. Chapter 9

Preparations for the party went on for some hours, making sure every small detail was perfect. Since this was the apocalypse and everything was scarce, they'd been planning this party for over four months – just to make sure they had everything and that the night would go perfectly for Esme, the birthday girl.

While most of the boys were preparing the library ready for the grand feast they would be having in Esme's honour, the girls were upstairs getting ready. This would be the first excuse to use the make-up and dresses they'd taken from shops nearby in months and they weren't going to waste an opportunity like this.

Adelaide stepped out of a small side room, dressed in a beautiful vintage two tone slip dress and a pair of black platform heels. Everyone's jaw dropped as they saw her. This would've been the first time Adelaide actually looked like a girly girl… they'd only ever seen her in jeans or her shorts and tights. She had minimal make-up on which only seemed to accentuate her beauty.

With a smile on her face, she twirled around once before she closed Hayley's jaw, giving her a wink. "You're all acting as if you've never seen me look like a girl!"

Brooke laughed, an arm wrapping around Adelaide's shoulder, giving her a slight hug. "In all the time I've known you, I've never seen you look this girly! It's kind of scaring me a little."

Adelaide laughed, too, giving Brooke a hug back. "You don't think it's too much?"

Brooke moved Adelaide to stand in front of a mirror, keeping an arm over her shoulders. "Are you kidding?! DogNut is going to go nuts when he sees you!"

Adelaide blushed a little before she made her way downstairs and towards the party, DogNut waiting for her at the bottom of the grand staircase. DogNut smiled widely once he saw her, taking Adelaide's hand and pressing a gentle kiss to the top of it, causing Adelaide to narrow her eyes a little at his gesture.

For a change, DogNut was in a suit and he looked clean. He could've been coated in dirt and blood and still worn his sweat and dirt covered clothes and Adelaide still would've thought he was handsome. But in a suit? Adelaide admittedly could only think about getting him out of it – even though the thought of it made her blush darker than a beetroot.

"What was that for?" She asked, not moving her hand out of his grasp.

DogNut gave her a look of fake heartbreak for a moment before smirking. "What? I'm not allowed to be a gentleman for one night?"

Adelaide sighed but eventually smiled, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Okay, you have one night of being this gentlemanly then I want you back to your usual self tomorrow morning, deal?"

DogNut nodded his head. "Deal." He pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss before quickly ending it and the pair walked towards the library for the party to begin.

The party began with a few speeches from Justin – who was as awkward as ever – and from Adelaide – who tried her hardest not to get emotional – before the gifts were given to Esme. Out of all her gifts, Adelaide's was by far her favourite. Adelaide had somehow found a pair of promise rings and given one to Esme and wearing the other. Esme placed it on her finger the moment she was told what it was and gave Adelaide a huge hug, almost suffocating her from how tight it was.

After presents, Esme finally got to have her cake. The birthday cake was a small collection of various chocolates placed into a glass bowl with a candle on top of it. It was simple and wasn't really a cake but it was the best they could do without having electricity to make a real cake, and Esme loved it and spent the remainder of the evening giving out chocolate to everyone she saw and eating most of it.

That was when the  _ **real**_  party began.

Somehow, the kids had got their hands on not just a record player but a large box of various vinyl records; they didn't use them often but when they did, it was always fun. The only downside was that there wasn't any music that had been popular before the infection and everyone was left with music their parents had listened to.

"What even is this music?" DogNut almost shouted into Adelaide's ear to be heard over the pounding music.

Adelaide laughed, shrugging her shoulders. "I have no idea! Jackson keeps finding vinyl's when we were out and demanded we keep them, you can blame her for the bad music."

After a few dance numbers, the song changed to a slow song. If Adelaide's song knowledge was correct, she was sure it was  _I Can't Help Falling In Love With You_ by  _Elvis Presley_. She shot a glance towards Jackson who was sat beside the record player and was in charge of the music, Jackson just raised her shoulders a little as her answer.

Adelaide's arm draped across DogNut's shoulders while her hand was linked with his and his other arm wrapped around her waist as they slowly rocked back and forth. They didn't say a word to each other – no words needed to be said. In that moment they were  _ **happy**_ , something that was rare in the world.

She felt like she was at prom – like the ones she saw in the movies she used to watch. The main girl and guy would slow dance together and admit that they've been in love with each other for years and they'd kiss, then that would be the end of the movie. Adelaide and DogNut did kiss – a lot – but they didn't say anything to each other.

Once the song was over and changed to an upbeat song obviously from the 1970's, Adelaide excused herself to get a drink, giving DogNut a kiss before leaving. Humming to herself a little, Adelaide slowly walked over to the refreshments table, debating what she should have to drink – slightly flat coke, what was left of the water or some of the alcohol someone had snuck into the party.

"That dress makes you look like a 90's stripper." Courtney's voice made Adelaide jump a little in surprise but she quickly composed herself. The look of pure disgust on Courtney's face was clear; if looks could kill, there would've been a murder right then and there.

Adelaide shrugged her shoulders, looking away from Courtney as she picked up a glass of flat coke. "Oh well, I feel good in it and that's all that matters."

"Well you certainly don't  _ **look**_  good in it."

Adelaide clenched her saw together, glaring as she turned towards Courtney. "What the fuck is your problem, Courtney?"

"My problem is that you hooked up with girls and had a whole relationship here but as soon as DogNut came back, you're acting as if you're in love with him. It's making you look like a complete slut."

"You're just jealous that he likes me and doesn't like you, get the fuck over yourself."

Courtney snapped and punched Adelaide across the face, causing her to fall backwards a little, dropping her glass as she fell. Adelaide massaged her jaw as she walked back towards Courtney. "So, you want to play that game, huh? Game on, bitch." She muttered before lunging at Courtney, tackling her to the floor and sent punches and scratches her way.

The pair quickly turned into a screaming mess; throwing punches and insults to each other like there was no tomorrow. Quickly, kids around them realized that a full-blown fist fight was happening in front of them, causing them to crowd around the two girls and chant "fight! Fight! Fight!" as they watched the brawl unfold in front of them.

The brawl came to a halt when Adelaide had to be forced off Courtney by Jackson, still screaming in Courtney's direction and Courtney being held back by Brooke while DogNut stood between the two girls, trying to create some distance between the two.

"Have you both lost your fucking minds?!" DogNut shouted at them, looking between both girls.

Adelaide struggled against Jackson's grip, trying to get out of it but failing. "She started it! She punched me in the face and called me a slut!"

Courtney was standing still, but Brooke still kept an arm out in front of her in case something happened. "She deserved it!"

DogNut sighed, trying to calm himself down and stop himself from declaring full out war against both girls. "Both of you just go to bed – the party's over, everyone out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write at least one chapter where they'd be able to be normal teenagers and actually be happy thus this chapter was created. I may or may not have been blasting You Gotta Fight for Your Right To Party by Beastie Boys while I wrote the fight tbh.
> 
> Sorry it's a little short, I wanted to get this chapter out the way so we can get back to the canon world and I've been working on a couple of one-shots to do with the story so keep an eye out for those!


	10. Chapter 10

After the party; tensions between Adelaide and Courtney were reaching boiling point. At breakfast, they refused to even look in each other's directions or sit at the same table. The side of Adelaide's face was still a little red from where Courtney punched her while Courtney still had scratch marks from above her eyebrow to just under her eyes from Adelaide's nails.

DogNut tried to get them to at least talk to each other like civilised people but that only resulted in sending hateful looks towards each other and insulting each other once again, refusing to talk about anything but how much they wanted each other dead. Causing him to eventually give up on trying to create some sense of peace between the two girls.

Since it was obvious the girls refused to talk to each other like rational human beings; he had to talk to them separately. He talked to Courtney first; but before he could even begin to talk about Adelaide to her, she spoke up first. She admitted that she was in the wrong and wanted to start over with Adelaide but she knew that Adelaide wouldn't allow it so she wouldn't even bother trying. She also admitted that she felt as if she didn't belong there, and she wanted to go home – back to the tower, to which DogNut agreed. He said he'd talk to Adelaide before making plans to leave.

After talking to Courtney, DogNut was walking through the museum, trying to find Adelaide but he found her without even having to ask anyone if they'd seen her. She was in the library, surrounded by at least thirty kids – all between the ages of six and eleven – and was reading them a story. As he watched, he noticed more and more kids sneak around and join in the crowd.

It wasn't hard to see that Adelaide was loved by the younger kids – it seemed she wasn't just a surrogate mother to Esme, but she was a surrogate mother to almost all of the kids as well.

Watching her, DogNut realised how much he cared about Adelaide, perhaps even loved her. He didn't know but what he did know was that whenever he saw her, he knew that he couldn't let anything touch her or hurt her. If that was love, then he was too far into it to back out.

He walked over towards her and leaned over to her ear. "Once you're done here, meet me on the roof. We need to talk," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of her head before leaving her to go to the roof.

Adelaide nodded before he left, feeling her heart sink inside her chest at his words of "we need to talk". That was just code for "I'm in deep shit". Forcing herself to smile, she finished the story and left the kids to do their own thing before returning to her room.

She looked at herself in the mirror to calm her nerves before picking up a bottle of alcohol and her beloved polaroid camera and leaving her room to go to the roof.

Arriving on the roof, she quickly found DogNut sitting on the edge, waiting for her. Placing her camera and the bottle down, she sat next to him, their shoulders touching. "What's up?"

"We're leaving," DogNut told her simply, not looking at her.

"When?"

"We're planning on tomorrow so this would be our last day here."

Adelaide nodded, remaining quiet for a moment before she placed a hand on DogNut's cheek, bringing his face to look at hers. "I'm going with you, and you're not allowed to say no."

DogNut smiled, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. "Of course you're coming with me, princess. Didn't come all this way to get you to just leave you here."

Adelaide smiled, moving her legs to drape across his while his arm wrapped around her waist. "DogNut I-"

"Jacob." He cut her off, looking down at Adelaide's legs.

"Huh?"

"My name... it's Jacob, Jay for short but my real name is Jacob."

"Jacob..." Adelaide paused for a moment, taking in the fact that he'd just told her his real name, one she was never told. He was always DogNut to her but now he had an actual name, "why did you just tell me your name?"

He moved her hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. "I just wanted you to know it, I mean, you're my girl."

Adelaide blushed, pressing a kiss to his lips. "I'm yours, just as much as you're mine."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way."

The pair continued to laugh and kiss long into the afternoon and evening, only stopping to take a few drinks from the bottle or for Adelaide to take photos of DogNut or of them being together, ignoring his protesting about how he wasn't photogenic – she did it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a head's up; the next few chapters will take place over one day and they'll probably be really short but I'll try to make them long for you guys without making them boring – if that makes sense. This was originally two chapters but laziness took over so I just combined them. Sorry it's short and crappy, zero inspiration for this.
> 
> DogNut's real name is never mentioned in the books (as far as I know, if it has been and this is wrong and I've been a blind dumbass – please tell me so I can fix it!) so I just made one up and he seemed like a Jacob to me so there's my reasoning behind it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just listen to Varúð by Sigur Rós throughout this chapter, it perfectly sums up the whole atmosphere of this chapter. WARNING: SLIGHT SEXUAL CONTENT AHEAD (forgive me, mum). I took inspiration from The End of Oz for this chapter and the next because everything I tried to write on my own was rubbish so here goes. The much-awaited sinning is finally upon us.

By the time the pair decided the come back down from the roof; the entire museum was dark and silent, showing that the pair had spent more time up there than they originally planned. After coming down from the roof, Adelaide asked DogNut to wait as she dropped off her camera and the bottle in her room before she returned to him. They walked through the quiet halls together, their hands linked together.

"Y'know," DogNut spoke up, causing Adelaide to look at him. "As weird as it sounds, I'm kind of gonna miss this place."

Adelaide smiled, leaning into him a little. "Yeah, me too. But I'm happy to be on the move, it'll be nice to get away from this place and leave it behind."

"You wouldn't miss anyone?"

"Nah… apart from Esme. But she'll be at the tower with us soon enough so I wouldn't miss her that much, plus, she'll be safe here. Just until we can come back and bring her to the tower."

DogNut nodded his head, the pair falling into silence again as they made their way back towards the living quarters to finally get some sleep. In truth, neither of them really wanted to go to bed or be separated from each other but they didn't say it in fear it would seem a little too needy.

They arrived back at the main sleeping area, surrounded by sleeping kids and they knew they had to say their goodnight's. Looking at each other and around each other awkwardly, they didn't say anything until DogNut spoke up.

"I guess this is goodnight then, princess." He whispered, making sure to keep his voice low to not wake up the sleeping kids.

Adelaide nodded, her grip on his hand tightening. "Yeah, I suppose it is. Sleep well, Jacob."

DogNut nodded, pressing a gentle kiss to Adelaide's cheek before slowly releasing her hand and turned away from her, starting his walk to his room to sleep.

Adelaide watched him for a split second before she rushed after him and gripped onto his back to stop him before walking to stand in front of him. Without speaking, Adelaide kissed DogNut with all the love and compassion she had within her. She didn't need words to tell him everything she wanted him to know with that kiss: that she was hopelessly, helplessly, unconditionally in love with him, that she would stay by his side until the end, whatever that end looked like.

He kissed her back – hesitantly at first, and then with a hunger she could feel through his mouth, his hands buried in her hair. It was a long time before the pair came up for air.

"Adelaide-" he said hoarsely, but Adelaide stopped him.

"No talking," she whispered, nodding towards the sleeping kids several feet away from them.

Adelaide took DogNut's hand and pressed a finger to her lips to keep him quiet as the pair almost jogged through the quiet museum. Adelaide knew exactly where she was going; she was taking him to one of the old offices that she had refurbished to better suit her and became her bedroom – she added a small bed and placed various books and weapons around the room, along with placing various valuables around to make it feel like she was home.

The pair looked at each other in the darkness for a moment before Adelaide carefully locked her arms around his shoulders, bringing his body closer to hers as she pressed her lips to his. They had kissed before, but it felt different to both of them.

They were nervous, of course. This would've been the first time either of them had done anything remotely close to this, but it felt right to them. It would've been the perfect way to say that they loved each other without even saying a word.

Hesitantly, the pair began to remove articles of their clothing, laughing between kisses until they both collapsed onto the bed, completely lost within their own little world.

Adelaide placed a hand on his chest, pausing the moment as she caught her breath.

He paused for a moment, running a finger down her bare arm. "Are you okay?"

Adelaide moved a little closer to him, covering her chest with one arm. "I'm, um, really nervous," she confessed, feeling herself blush. Then she blushed more because she knew he could see her blushing.

"It's okay," he answered, his voice soft and gentle. "We don't have to do this. We don't even have to do anything at all. I can go if you want me to. Do you want me to go?"

"No!" Adelaide's voice came out as an urgent squeak, not something she intended to happen. "It's just that I, um, I've never done this before. The thing that it seems like we're maybe about to do."

" _ **Oh**_ ," he said, blushing a little too. "I, well," he sat up, and Adelaide's heart sank inside her chest, thinking she'd ruined everything. "I've never done this before either."

" _ **Oh**_ ," Adelaide breathed, her heart relaxing a little as she heard his words, knowing that she wasn't the only one who was nervous.

"When I first met you, I thought you were just another pretty face who would end up dead anyway. But then I got to know you. And I couldn't believe how stupid and selfish I had been – I was a jerk to you, yeah, I admit it. But I had to be to keep myself away from you because I thought that if I allowed myself to get close to you, I would just end up losing you. But then I saw you on the bridge and that was when I knew – I knew that I couldn't stay away from you or allow myself to be a jerk to you anymore. I was too late to tell you. But I do know this; you taught me that there are good people left in the world. You taught me how to love. You taught me how to choose. And I choose you. Always. I choose you. And I'll choose you, over and over and over. Without pause, without a doubt, in a heartbeat. I'll keep choosing you."

Adelaide's heart clenched inside her chest. "Jacob…"

Adelaide and DogNut had kissed and touched before, but there was always a stopping point. A holding back. This was letting go. Every touch and kiss was a call and response of skin and feeling. But it wasn't like the movies. They still giggled a lot and it was awkward and funny and a little weird but also completely, totally perfect.

Afterward, she pillowed her head on his lean and slightly muscular chest and stared up at the dark ceiling above them as the pounding of his heart slowed to a regular beat. He put an arm around her and she burrowed into his side, jerking her head away from the ceiling.

"I love you," he said softly into her hair, breaking the silence.

"I know," she said back, a small smile coming onto her lips before yawning and falling into the deepest and more contented sleep of her life.


	12. Chapter 12

A repeated thumping on the door pulled Adelaide out of the depths of sleep and DogNut's arms. Sitting bolt upright, Adelaide took a few seconds to realise what was happening and where she was. She wasn't wearing any clothes, someone was pounding on the door, and she wasn't alone in the bed – and it was then she remembered. DogNut was the person next to her. DogNut. She'd slept with DogNut. Brooke was going to have a field day once she heard, and Courtney was probably going to kill her for sleeping with her not so secret crush. Heck, Adelaide had even been punched in the face by Courtney for hitting on "her" man – even after the fight they'd had the day beforehand.

Next to her, DogNut stirred and groaned, flinging an arm over his eyes in protest before he sat up.

"Hi," Adelaide said, turning back towards him as she brought the covers over her bare chest.

"Hi," he said back, his smile looked the way she felt. "Come here."

He pulled her towards him and into a long, passionate kiss. And then there was an even more forceful thump at the door, causing the pair to end their kiss and mentally curse whoever was interrupting them.

"All I want," DogNut said in a low voice, tracing Adelaide's collarbone with one finger. "Is to spend the rest of my life in bed with you. But I guess we have to save the world, or something."

Adelaide nodded, chuckling a little. "Or something," she agreed before reluctantly stretched and stood up with a sigh, locating her clothes at various points around the small room, and blushing darkly as she remembered how they'd ended up there.

"Don't put those on," DogNut protested, watching the back of Adelaide.

"Shut up," she smirked, unable to stop the idiotic grin that seemed to be permanently etched onto her lips. But then again, she didn't want to put her clothes back on.

"I mean it."

Adelaide threw his shirt at him. "We have to kill sickos, look after the little kids and go back to the Tower. You said so. Also, said sickos are coming to kill us."

He flopped back dramatically. "Who cares anymore? I can think of way better things to do with our time."

She joined him on the bed, their shoulders touching. Adelaide's smile dropped as she stared at the ceiling, not saying anything for a while as she thought. "What happens now?" she asked after what seemed like an eternity.

"We get married, obviously."

"Shut up!" Adelaide laughed, elbowing him. "What happens for real, after we finally beat the sickos?"

"Adelaide Milton, always thinking about the future," DogNut said, rolling over and toying with the ends of Adelaide's hair. "I wish I knew."

"Hurry up!" A voice bellowed from the other side of the door, followed by a hard kick which Adelaide was sure would leave a bruise. Courtney's voice almost seemed as if it was about to break from how loud she was shouting, and would probably hurt for the remainder of the day; not that she cared.

"We're coming!" Adelaide yelled back, sitting up as she shouted but promptly fell back once she finished.

Courtney muttered something under her breath then stomped away.

"You can't hate her forever, y'know." Adelaide said once Courtney's steps had died down and she knew she could talk freely once again.

"Yes I can," DogNut answered, visibly getting angry. "She hurt you."

Adelaide shook her head sighing as she hid her face in her hands. "I'm used to it, don't even worry about it. I'm fine. We can't think about this now, DogNut. Right now, there's no time for hate. We're fighting a goddamn army of sickos out there."

DogNut said nothing for a few moments, tracing small circles along Adelaide's arm. "If it were up to me, no one would ever hurt you."

Adelaide turned to face him, noticing how innocent he looked. Like, the hard boy she'd always seen was just a mask and this puppy-eyed child was what he really looked like. "I love you for that. I mean..." she trailed off, realising what she had just said. She'd said those words without even thinking about them, and she'd meant them. She loved him; she'd known it since the moment she met him but only now had she the guts to tell him.

DogNut pushed back her hair and looked into her eyes. "I love you, Adelaide."

"I love you, DogNut."

"When you asked before about our after... I don't care where we end up, as long as we're together."

"Together isn't a place, DogNut."

"To me it is."

DogNut kissed her long and deep, and the pair knew that they were going to be very late for breakfast or whatever Courtney had tried to get them out of bed for.

Half an hour later, Adelaide headed for breakfast first. The smile was still on her face as she walked out of her room, her cheeks in a near constant blush as she tried to hide it.

Brooke and Courtney were hunched over the table, talking in low voices. They looked up when Adelaide came into the room, but they didn't move apart. The pair of them looked like they'd been there for a long time.

"Where's DogNut?" Brooke asked, looking behind Adelaide for a moment before focusing back on her.

"He's, uh, he's… I don't know," Adelaide answered, feeling her cheeks heat up and internally scolding herself for it.

Courtney laughed. "Sure you don't,  _ **Addie**_."

"I do not! I have no idea where he slept last ni-"

At that exact moment, DogNut chose to emerge from the same bedroom Adelaide had just come out of, causing Courtney to roll her eyes. "Sleep well, DogNut?" she asked sweetly, unable to keep the smile off her face. He looked between her and Adelaide, confused.

"I slept fine?" he answered, but it came out more like a question.

Courtney couldn't hold it back and collapsed into giggles. "I  _ **bet**_  you did."

"Knock it off," Brooke said sharply, causing Courtney to immediately stop her giggling.

She wasn't joking – and she wasn't just talking to Courtney either. Adelaide's temper flared. She was angry at Courtney for bringing up where DogNut had slept, and at Brooke for thinking she had any reason to weigh in. but mostly, she was angry at the situation. No matter how much she wanted the opposite to be true; they were there for a reason that had nothing to do with what was happening between DogNut and her. But at the same time, what was happening between DogNut and her was what they were fighting for.

"I'm ready for business," Adelaide told the pair, sitting down at the table. DogNut sat next to her, his thigh touching hers. She let herself lean into him a little. Courtney's eyes flicked over Adelaide, but she didn't say a word.

"We all are." Brooke said, placing her hands flat on the table. "We've got a lot of ground to cover today, and since now our two key members have arrived; we can begin planning. We tell everyone we're leaving, give short goodbyes then we leave, sounds like a plan?"

The group nodded in unison, not saying a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My precious children finally admitted they loved each other nawhhhh. After waiting for 500 years, we're finally getting back to the canon world.


	13. Chapter 13

The group's plans of leaving were severely delayed after DogNut and Courtney were almost forced to tell the story of what happened since the sickos began to exist to Chris for his Chronicles of Survival book. Adelaide sat down beside DogNut and held onto his arm as he began his story, giving him gentle squeezes whenever he became upset. That was her job now, reminding him that it was okay to cry and to fall apart sometimes.

Adelaide kept an eye out on the outside world, noticing that it would soon be dusk and everyone knew that nobody went out after dark, it was far too dangerous even for the most experienced fighters. She would've suggested to wait until the next day but Adelaide knew how anxious DogNut was to get back to the Tower, and staying another day longer might make things worse.

Adelaide walked back to her room, packing up a small backpack of photos and clothes before looking around the small room one last time. The last night she'd spent in that room with DogNut now felt so long ago, that her life had changed so much over just several hours. Shaking her head to herself, she left her room and walked to get her weapons before walking outside into the dusky sunlight.

Placing her belongings down, she knelt down to Esme's height as she was sitting on the steps of the museum, trying to put on her best 'mum' smile. "I'm leaving now," she said, placing her hands on either side of Esme's body.

Esme shook her head, shaking a little. "I wanna go too!" She was fidgeting, giving the obvious signals that she was about to have a complete meltdown with screaming and crying and it wouldn't be pretty.

"You can't, it's too dangerous." Adelaide paused, licking her lips before speaking up again, moving her hands to cup Esme's face. "Listen, sweetheart. Mama's gonna go on ahead and make sure that the Tower is safe for both of us and as soon as I know that it is, I will come back for you, okay? I promise."

Esme began crying, clinging onto Adelaide tightly. "I don't want you to go!" She sobbed into Adelaide's shoulder.

"I know, baby, I don't want to leave without you but I have to." Adelaide took deep breaths to stop herself from crying before turning to Hayley who stood at the top of the steps, keeping a tight hold on Esme. "Protect her with your life, if anything happens to her-"

Hayley nodded, taking a step forward. "I know, you'll kill me." She gently removed Esme from Adelaide, keeping the crying child away from Adelaide. "Go, we've got everything covered here."

Adelaide nodded, picking up her belongings and walking down the steps and towards the main gate. Jackson stood beside her, tucking a walkie-talkie into her belt before leaning against the gate to wait for the rest of the team to arrive. "Looks like you're going to be stuck with me for a while," Jackson joked, gently knocking her elbow against Adelaide's arm.

Forcing herself to smile, Adelaide gave Jackson a sideways glance, going along with the joke. "How wonderful, just when I thought I could ditch you for good and never see your ugly mug again."

The pair smirked just as DogNut came and pressed a kiss to Adelaide's cheek, an arm wrapping around her waist. Adelaide smiled as she turned around to give him a long and deep kiss, causing Marco and Felix to tell them to get a room and Adelaide giving them the finger, continuing to kiss DogNut.

DogNut broke off the kiss and laughed before moving his lips to Adelaide's ear, his breath causing chills to go down Adelaide's spine. "When we get back to the Tower, we are definitely repeating last night," he pressed a kiss to her cheek before walking off, a smirk on his lips as he winked in Adelaide's direction.

Adelaide blushed a dark shade of red as the group walked out of the gates and into the unknown. While everyone went on ahead, Adelaide hung out at the back, twirling her baseball bat in her hands. Now that she was alone, she let her mind wander. She wondered if leaving Esme behind was truly the best idea for her and if she should have just taken Esme with her regardless of the danger. But it was far too late to wonder about it now, bringing Esme to the Tower would have to wait a few days and Adelaide knew that they would be hell.

"Hang about!" DogNut shouted, causing everyone to stop and Adelaide to snap back into reality and jogged to the front of the group, her hands gripping her baseball bat as she stood beside DogNut. "Babe? What's going on?"

"Bloody sickos!" DogNut hissed, drawing his sword.

_**Shit.** _

Adelaide hastily placed her baseball bat into her backpack and brought out two of her throwing knives, waiting for DogNut to give her the signal to attack. She wasn't afraid, she'd fought off perhaps hundreds of sickos over the year she'd been at the museum. She could easily take down the four sickos in front of them – she'd done it before and she could easily do it again but she wasn't in charge here; DogNut was and whatever he said goes.

But before she could do say or do anything, Courtney gripped her spear with both hands and advanced past DogNut and Adelaide and towards the sickos. "Come on then!" She almost screamed. "I'm all yours!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's happening and I'm not ready. I don't want it to happen, like ever. I think the next chapter will be short like this one but I don't know, I'm still in the middle of writing it so for all I know, I'm completely wrong.


	14. Chapter 14

Adelaide hesitated before she slowly followed after Courtney, giving slight glances towards DogNut as she did. As much as she hated to admit it but now she was a little afraid, but she couldn't afford to be. In this world, weakness is death, fear is death… everything could mean death and it was something every kid in the city knew; it was imprinted inside their brains ever since the sickos arrived.

Her hands were sweating a little, causing her grip on her knives to slip a little but she kept an iron grip on them, refusing to let them fall. She needed to be strong, show that she wasn't afraid.

She heard DogNut swear beside her, causing her to halt. "Gym bunnies!" He announced.

Adelaide's eyes widened at his words, the hardened look on her face replaced with the look of petrified fear within the blink of an eye. She'd remembered the story DogNut had told her about his last encounter with the gym bunnies and she knew that the same thing would happen here again.

Before she realized it, their group was completely surrounded by sickos. Adelaide almost dropped her knives as she backed away a little. She placed her knives back into their holders and grabbed her baseball bat out of her backpack, trying to calm herself.

In that moment, she felt completely  _ **useless**_. Like she needed someone to come in and rescue her; she hadn't felt like that since the beginning of the whole shit storm and she hated that feeling. She wasn't weak, she wasn't that scared little girl anymore. She couldn't be her anymore, now wasn't the time to be her.

Before she knew it, the fighting began and she forced back her fear and went into warrior mode, emitting a loud battle cry as she charged towards several mothers, slashing her bat into the faces and chests of the mothers, kicking more of them back before hitting them clean in the face.

Adelaide had killed only three of them before she was forced to run, forcing herself to abandon her unfinished job of killing every sicko she saw. As she was running down the stairs, following after DogNut, she placed her baseball bat back into her backpack to make sure she didn't drop it. Somewhere in the chaos, Jackson and Robbie disappeared, Jackson dropping the walkie-talkie on the ground and Adelaide quickly grabbed it, shoving it into her backpack.

Behind the group, Brooke screamed as she was tackled to the ground by two fathers, DogNut and Courtney sprinted towards her but by the time they arrived, the two fathers were dead, knives sticking out of the sides of their heads and Adelaide staring at them. She didn't have time to get her knives before they had to run again, but towards the grass instead.

Breathless and on the verge of tears, Adelaide looked at DogNut and shakily gripped his hand. "I'm scared, we're gonna die here."

DogNut shook his head, forcing Adelaide to look at him. "That ain't happening, babe. I know you're scared, I am too, but we can do this."

"We can't, there's too many of them."

"Yes we can," DogNut kissed her fiercely for the briefest of moments before raising his sword. "Let's do this, babes. It's you and me against the world; Addie and DogNut until the end!"

Adelaide felt herself grow stronger at his words, bringing out her baseball bat out one last time as she smiled.

The pair charged towards the sickos together, their weapons blurring from the speed of their arms. In the chaos and the heat of the moment, they became separated; DogNut going one way and Adelaide going another but none of them realising it until they were completely alone.

Adelaide frantically looked around her for DogNut, but she couldn't see him. She didn't have time to call out his name because she was faced with a gym bunny; ugly and far larger than her in every way humanly possible, she ran around him to try to create distance between them and to see if she could find DogNut but it wasn't doing much.

Taking a deep breath, Adelaide slammed her baseball bat against the side of the gym bunny's chest, causing the gym bunny to turn around, growling at her. "Oh fuck me," Adelaide muttered before being violently kicked in the stomach. She cringed at the pain, a hand rubbing her stomach to ease the pain. "Right in the ovaries… if I ever have kids and they come out horribly deformed, I know who to blame and it surely won't be my man."

She growled under her breath as she raised her bat once again and slammed it against the gym bunny only this time, nothing happened. Either from the force of the swing, or the strength of the gym bunny itself, Adelaide's baseball bat had splintered and broke into three different parts, pieces of wood and nails flying everywhere, leaving her almost completely defenceless against the gym bunnies.

Grabbing one of her last knives, she charged into the gym bunny and began to violently stab it in the abdomen until it went down to the ground and Adelaide climbed on top of it and continued stabbing it, moving up to its chest.

Adelaide stabbed the gym bunny repeatedly, screaming at it to die as blood and puss covered her face. Once she was certain the gym bunny was dead, she stood back up completely breathless. With blood completely coating her face, she looked over at DogNut and watched in horror as her whole world came crashing down within the blink of an eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not prepared for the next chapter. I will never be prepared for it. Still in denial over the whole thing four years later tbh. This chapter is just a mess tbh, I wouldn't blame you if you hated it.
> 
> On the good side; my muse for this story has returned with a vengeance and I'm probably going to be posting like crazy with this story.


	15. Chapter 15

Adelaide was frozen in place as she watched the knife go through DogNut's side, the mother screaming with laughter the whole time as if it was some kind of sick and twisted game. Throwing her backpack away, she gripped her knives as she felt her heart break into a million pieces.

_**No.** _

_**No, god please no.** _

_**Don't do this to me, please don't.** _

_**Not now, not ever.** _

Through her tears, she sprinted as fast as she could towards the pair, her pair of throwing knives in her hands. She screamed at the mother as she shoved both knives into the sides of her head, causing the mother to release DogNut and fall to the ground dead.

DogNut fell to his knees and to the floor, Adelaide holding him in her arms. Even through her shaking hands and her racing mind, she knew vaguely what to do. She quickly removed his jacket and his armour and applied pressure to his wound, ignoring her hands now being coated in blood. She took a shaky breath as tears dropped down her cheeks, keeping her hands over his wound. "You're okay, you're okay, I'm here. You're gonna be fine, I promise."

"Thanks, princess." He whispered, forcibly trying to keep his eyes open and focus on her voice, knowing he needed to stay conscious for as long as possible. But somewhere inside of him knew that he was dying, there was no avoiding it. But at least he died a hero, protecting the girl he loved.

Adelaide forced back her tears and licked her lips, beginning to speak. "I love you, Jacob. I really do; when you saved my life when we first met, that was when I realised you were the most beautiful person I had ever seen. And when you came to find me, that was when I realised how in love with you I was and I never wanted to let you go. I'm so grateful for you, Jacob. You reminded me that there are good people left in this world and I cannot tell you how thankful I am for your love."

DogNut frowned a little, his eyebrows fusing together in confusion. "Why'd you tell me that?"

Adelaide shrugged her shoulders, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. "I don't know, I guess trauma turns me into an emotional wreck and I blurt out whatever secrets or things I've never told anyone else."

She looked around the park, hoping she would see Jackson running down the road towards them with help but Adelaide already knew the truth. Nobody was going to come and help them, they were completely alone now.

Even with Adelaide applying pressure to DogNut's wound, it wouldn't be enough to save his life. She needed proper medical supplies and she didn't have anything with her. She knew he was dying, but there was one more thing she needed to say to him before he died. She'd thought of it for over a year and hoped she would never have to say it, but now her worst nightmare had come true and now she had to tell him.

Through her shaking voice and her sobbing, she somehow managed to get the words out. "Listen to me, you are going to beat this world. You're gonna get out of here, you're gonna go on and we're gonna make lots of babies, and you're gonna watch them grow. You're gonna die an old man warm in his bed, not here, not this night. Not like this, do you understand me? I won't let that happen."

DogNut smiled through the pain, chuckling a little. "Did you just quote Titanic at me?"

Adelaide chuckled through her tears, nodding her head. "You quoted Terminator the first time we met; I felt like it was only fair that I got to quote a movie line back to you."

DogNut reached up to gently place a hand on Adelaide's cheek, wiping away her tears with his thumb. "So beautiful," he whispered before his hand dropped and he died in Adelaide's arms.

A single tear fell down Adelaide's cheek before her eyes closed, resting her head on his chest. She couldn't hold it back anymore, she let out a loud scream into DogNut's chest, her arms clutching his body. "Come back to me, babe. Please come back," she brought her face back up to his, a hand cupping DogNut's face gently.

She knew he wasn't coming back, he was gone now. And she was left to pick up the pieces, and deal with the loss of him on her own. She'd failed to do the one thing she'd wanted to do from the start; protect him and keep him safe.

Adelaide pressed a kiss to his lips, resting her forehead against his for a moment before looking back up to see more grown-ups coming towards her but they were blurred to her, and she felt herself lose grip on reality. She couldn't tell if it was from exhaustion or just the shock of DogNut's death but she promptly collapsed to the ground beside DogNut, almost appearing to be dead. The last Brooke saw of Adelaide as she was carried away after being rescued by the Holloway crew was her seemingly lifeless body lying beside DogNut, coated in blood with her eyes closed. Then Brooke's world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #SorryNotSorry
> 
> You guys knew this was coming, but it still hurt like a mother fucker. But the story isn't over yet, guys! Adelaide's story still hasn't been completed and although DogNut isn't in it, he'll still play an important part in it, you guys will just have to trust me.
> 
> If you want your feels hurt even more; I wrote an AU to this called Without Each Other, it's up on my profile now and I hope you'll like it – I know I've already killed Esme with it so I know it's painful. Extra brownie points for you if you notice the parallels between this chapter and that story, by the way.


	16. Chapter 16

Rain pounded down on the grass, dampening the scene and water logging most of the park. Adelaide's body was completely soaked, and still seemed as lifeless as it had been for the past several hours until the smallest movements in her fingertips indicated she was still alive. She took a deep inhale of breath, her eyes opening quickly as she sat up. The blood on her face and hands were almost completely gone and instead stained her clothes and the ground around her.

But all that mattered was that she was _ **alive.**_

_**She'd survived.** _

Barely.

Slowly and shakily, Adelaide turned to look down at DogNut's body beside her. She didn't cry, however. She just felt numb. The boy she loved was gone, and now she had to go on and live for both of them. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips, her forehead resting against his for a moment. "May we meet again, my love."

Picking up his jacket, she quickly placed it on to keep herself warm from the freezing rain pounding down on her skin. Wearing it made her feel like he was still there with her, giving her a warm glow in the pit of her stomach. Standing up, Adelaide rubbed her hands quickly along her arms before bringing them to her mouth to warm herself up but with the freezing temperatures and the rain, she knew it wouldn't be enough to keep herself warm for long.

She stumbled through the wreckage of dead grown-ups and mangled pieces of flesh, managing to salvage two of her throwing knives from the wreckage before discovering her backpack she'd thrown the night before. It was now a little damp from the rain but thankfully, nothing inside damaged but she couldn't find the walkie talkie anywhere.

"Dammit," she hissed to herself, closing her bag and frantically looked around the park to see if she could find the walkie talkie. She finally found it several feet ahead of her, Adelaide jogged through the park until she slipped and fell on her ankle at an awkward angle, feeling a crunch in her ankle. Adelaide cringed at the pain, her hand clutching her ankle.

She tried to stand but as soon as she applied pressure to it, she fell over and the pain in her ankle was agonising. She knew that it was bad, perhaps she'd twisted or sprained it but either way she wouldn't be able to walk properly for a while. She needed the walkie talkie to call for help, and pray to god that someone would hear her cries for help.

Unable to walk, she forced herself to crawl across the ground, despite the pain. "Come on, Addie, you can do this," she muttered to herself as she reached for the walkie talkie and grabbed it. It was a little battered and the screen was cracked, but it still worked. Through her shaking hands, she managed to turn it on and pressed the button to allow her to speak. "If anyone can hear me; I request urgent medical assistance... I'm at Green Park and unable to go any further without assistance… please help me... Whoever is listening; This is Adelaide Milton, and I'm alive."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Alive by Sia aggressively plays in the background.]
> 
> Lol, bitch you thought I'd kill her.
> 
> Sorry for the short update, it's all leading up to the third part which will be super long – it'll be the longest update I've ever written on a story ever so there's that to make up for it.


	17. Chapter 17

Adelaide was rescued by a small group of fighters lead by Jackson several minutes after she'd sent her distress signal, Jackson practically sprinting towards her. The pair hugged tightly, sobbing into each other. Jackson tried to ask what had happened but Adelaide just shook her head, refusing to speak about what she had lived through. Jackson understood and decided not to press her about it, instead taking her back to the museum.

Over the course of several days, Adelaide's ankle healed but it would take time for her to be able to fight again. She could walk, but she couldn't put too much pressure on it nor could she run. Adelaide was okay with that, she was done with fighting, anyway. Without DogNut, she felt like she didn't have anything else to really live or fight for.

Perhaps that was why she found herself standing on the roof, the cold wind blowing through her hair and drying her tears. Adelaide stood at the edge of the museum roof, her toes curling over the edge. It was so  _ **easy**_ … just one more step and she would be free. Free from the guilt, free from the pain, free from the constant reminders that she had lived and so many people had died.

Just as she was finally about to jump, she felt arms wrap tightly around her middle and someone pulling her back from the edge. She tried to get out of their grip but she wasn't strong enough. Once she was far enough away from the edge, the person's arms released her and Adelaide finally saw who it was.

_**Hayley.** _

"Have you completely lost your fucking mind?! Adelaide, what the hell are you doing?" She almost screamed at Adelaide, her long black hair whipping around her face.

Tears began to fall down Adelaide's face again, her breathing heavy and she knew she was on the verge of a panic attack. "Everything reminds me of him, Hayley. I can't live like this! I want to leave this fucking place and not look back."

Hayley gently placed her hands on Adelaide's shoulders, calming down within moments. "Addie, calm down, just breathe."

Adelaide forced herself out of Hayley's grasp, screaming in her face. "I can't calm down! Everyone is dead, Hayley! Jack, Bam, DogNut, Courtney, Aleshia, Frédérique, even Jared... they're all dead, everyone is dead!"

"Adelaide, what happened to them… it wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was! Courtney died because I wasn't there to help her, Jared died because I wasn't there to protect him and DogNut died saving my life… it should've been me."

Adelaide didn't wait to hear Hayley's response before she stormed back downstairs, ignoring the throbbing in her ankle as she arrived back into her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her. She looked around her room in anger before grabbing a small pot of black ink and a needle from a shelf, knowing what she was going to do.

Sitting on her bed, Adelaide cringed at the sensation of the needle penetrate her skin but she didn't stop until she had finished her tattoo; it was DogNut's name on her wrist. She wanted to remember him and this was how she would make sure that his memory would never die. He died protecting her and she wanted to remember him like that; her brave knight.

Once she was finished, she lay down on her bed and traced over her new tattoo over and over and eventually fell into a light and dreamless sleep – a welcomed relief from the nightmare of her reality.

By the time she woke up, the museum was silent and the dim light of the morning came into her room. Sitting up in bed, she wiped the sleep out of her eyes and rolled out of bed. If she couldn't kill herself, then she'd do the next best thing; she'd runaway and never come back.

In the early hours of the morning, Adelaide made her bed and made sure all her belongings were safely in her backpack, including the many Polaroid pictures she had taken of DogNut. They were her most prised possessions, and looked at them often. She kept his jacket, too, but she never wore it. She sometimes hung it around her shoulders like he would have done but that was about it. She wanted to preserve it as best as she could, even though she'd worn it once back at the park.

Leaving her room, Adelaide walked silently around the museum before reaching Hayley's room and reaching into her pocket to bring out a letter she'd written earlier that night;

_Dear Hayley;_

_I'm sorry. I can't stay here – everything I see reminds me of him and I just need to get away from here. I don't know if or when I'll come back but I hope we see each other again, my friend. Don't come looking for me, I just need to be alone for a while._

_Tell Esme that I'm sorry, that I love her and that I'll come home soon. And to never give up hope. Protect her with your life, Hayley. She's the only good thing I have left in this world._

_May we meet again._

_Adelaide._

She looked over it one more time before she left it under Hayley's door and walked towards Esme. Adelaide watched Esme sleep for a few moments before she finally leaned down to press a gentle kiss to her forehead, mouthing her goodbyes and how sorry she was for leaving Esme again.

Walking slowly and quietly away, Adelaide had to remind herself that she needed to do this – she  _ **had**_  to leave. There was almost nothing left for her there, and she needed time alone for her to figure out what she was going to do next.

As quietly as she could, she left the museum and stepped out into the chilly morning, her breath clearly visible as she made her way down the steps, trying to stop herself from thinking about the last time she was in this position – she was going to the Tower with DogNut and she was  _ **happy**_. That life felt like a million years ago rather than several days.

Slowly, she opened the main gates and stepped out of them, closing them behind her. She took a deep and shaky breath as she looked at the streets before her before looking back at the museum, she took one last look at the museum before she turned her back and walked into the empty streets alone, not looking back.

 

_**END OF PART TWO...** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more part left of this story; I don't want it to end! But like I said earlier, Adelaide's story still hasn't been completed just yet and although DogNut isn't in it, he'll still play an important part in it.
> 
> Just wait for part three; it's my pride and joy, to be honest. If I could, I'd just make the entire story like part three but then it wouldn't make sense.


	18. Chapter 18

_**PART THREE** _

 

_**THE END** _

 

"We were a community.

They made me their leader even when I never asked to be.

But the lightning in their eyes heralded me to whatever they needed me to become.

We were hopeful we would win because nothing could scare us.

We feared no city, and we feared no man."

* * *

_**THREE MONTHS LATER…** _

There were whispers, rumours and stories about what happened at Green Park; but there was some truth known about what happened that night. The truth was that there were two survivors of the attack; one had gone insane but continued to live while the other had taken the coward's way out and ran away, abandoning her people and becoming a traitor in the process. Nobody knew where the coward was now – most believed (and secretly hoped) she was dead but others believed she was still alive somewhere and surviving, they just didn't know where.

But in reality; she was hidden in plain sight, hidden in the one place no-one dared to look, the one place they had abandoned over a year beforehand.

In the burned ruins of what remained of South London, there were survivors from the fire but after being cut off from the rest of London, their primal instincts kicked in and were seen as savages by the other surviving groups and whispers of cannibalism and murder echoed throughout the other clans and across London – none of which were true, of course. But they heavily opposed outside interference and preferred to be left alone by everyone who wasn't their own; they survived without any form of help, so why request some now? Their enemies weren't the infected – they seemed to stay away from them and their side of the river ever since the fire – it was other kids.

Their main base of operations was what was left of Guy's Hospital; after the fire, almost sixty percent of the building had been lost and a further ten percent was left unusable but they made it work with what was left and it became home to most of them and the surrounding buildings were made into homes for the non-fighters.

They were under the command of an outsider; but the one who saved their lives after their previous leader was killed by a grown-up (or Revenant as they were referred to in the camp) and thus was made the new leader, despite where she had come from and her reputation as a traitor and a coward. It was agreed that she was by far the most experienced warrior they had; she'd been through the battle of Lambeth Bridge virtually unharmed, survived the attack at Green Park and trekked across London alone to reach their side of the river with only two throwing knives to defend herself – those things alone proved that she had the capability to become their commander and lead them into any war she so desired. She called the shots, and anyone who opposed her rule was cast out and never allowed to return – a fate far worse than death in this world – or straight up executed, depended on how their commander felt that day.

Said commander was sitting on a large wooden chair – which was more like a throne – and staring at a Polaroid picture in her hands, delicately tracing her fingers over the image repeatedly, the same thing she did almost every single day. Tears began to form in her eyes, but she forced them back – she was sick and tired of crying over the life she once lived. She was a leader now, and she had no time to think about the past. That part of her was dead and gone, there was no use in crying about it.

The doors opened to reveal a frantic looking girl with light brown hair, her once loosely braided hair now fell in clumps around her face which was bright red from running through the camp. Even after running so far and being completely exhausted, she still knelt down as respect to her leader before rising and taking a step forward and speaking, almost completely breathless. "Commander; There's rumours going around... there's a war brewing, they're recruiting soldiers and looking for every clan in the city to join the fight. The war to end all wars; one final push against the undead. Will we go? General Jordan is requesting it."

At the name of Jordan, the girl's head snapped towards the lighter haired girl within the blink of an eye, placing the Polaroid down on the arm of her chair as she slowly walked towards the blonde. The girl's long dark brunette hair cascaded down her back in a mixture of intricate braids and being left naturally, showing that she was in power and she had time to do her hair rather than leave it alone like the rest of the group. The girl smirked a little, looking down at the dirt covered floor before for a moment looking back up at the lighter haired girl, her smirk disappearing within moments. "Prepare the troops, we're going on a little trip."

_**~#~** _

Groups of kids from all over London were travelling to join the fight, coming from as far away as Uxbridge and Harrow in some cases. They were all fully aware that the invitation of the war was given to the savages that lived in South London, and wished that they would decline due to the fact that they would scare the younger kid's half to death. The sickos didn't scare them so much anymore, but the South London crew certainly did.

Ed and Brooke were welcoming each clan that came, making sure they understood what was going on. They too were aware of the invitation of the war had been extended to the South London crew but like many others, secretly hoped that they wouldn't turn up or refuse to stand with them. After all, they did cast South London out of most of their affairs due to their reputation of being murderers and cannibals.

Just as Ed was explaining where the newest arrivals should go, the sound of boots on the pavement interrupted the conversation, causing the group to turn around to see what was coming. A group of almost thirty came towards them, dressed almost all in black with war paint on every single one of them, following behind a dark-haired girl with a mask over her mouth up to her nose and a hood over her head to cover her hair – leaving her identity unknown and wearing black like the rest of her group but had a blue leather flying jacket on, setting her apart from the rest of the group.

_**They're here.** _

The leader raised a hand, causing the group behind her to stop dead in their tracks before she walked forward alone. As she walked towards Ed and Brooke, she pushed her hood back, showing her braided hair. Ed and Brooke held their breath, unsure of how they should react to seeing the South London crew's leader for the first time since their formation. They'd heard the rumours about the South London crew but they weren't quite prepared to face the leader of them.

The rumours surrounding the leader were perhaps more infamous than the crew itself. Some say the only reason she became the leader was because she killed the original leader and took his place, others say she was in a fight to the death against him and won then proceeded to cut his head off and kept it as a trophy. They called her the commander of death; wherever she went, death and destruction always seemed to follow close behind. Nobody seemed to know the true identity of the commander, but they knew that she was once one of them and that just made everything a lot more terrifying – she knew their routines, their weaknesses, their strengths and she would have nothing stopping her from using them against them.

She was inches away from them now, her eyes narrowing as she looked at them before she moved her mask to reveal who was the leader of the "savages".

 _ **Adelaide**_.

Despite everything she had been through and all the things that were against her. She'd survived and proved to both herself, and all those who ever doubted her that she was a survivor and she deserved to be there. Both Brooke and Ed were shocked to see that Adelaide was the leader of the most brutal groups in London; it was clear that the Adelaide they knew was gone and in her place, was the commander of death itself.

She looked different, older somehow, more war-torn. The obvious cut above her lip, various small scars that littered her face and dark paint around her eyes showed that she had seen more than her fair share of fights and death. But then again, so had every kid in the city. Her once bright eyes now seemed almost cold and calculating, completely different from the girl they knew well. That girl had died that night with DogNut, that was obvious.

A sly smirk came onto her lips as she spoke up. "Surprise, bitches, I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me."

Brooke looked as if she was about to cry, seeing one of her closest friends again after so long after believing she was dead was the best news she'd received in months – well, ever since she left the palace. " _ **Addie**_? Where the fuck have you been?"

"Wonderland," Adelaide replied, the smirk not leaving her lips.

Brooke couldn't stop herself, she threw herself at Adelaide and hugged her as tightly as she could. Adelaide was taken aback by Brooke's gesture but slowly hugged her back, feeling herself relax a little. It felt good to be close to another human being; it had been a while since she'd been hugged.

During her several months absence, she'd only gotten close to one other person. Her name was Clara, and she was the first person since DogNut that actually made her feel something – but (like DogNut) it wasn't meant to be. On a supply run in North London, Clara's team had run into a rival group and subsequently, Clara had a gun placed against her head and the trigger pulled to show that they were not welcome there. Now they had an even better reason to never combine forces with North London.

In truth, the only reason why Adelaide came back was not just to avenge Clara, but to see Jordan once again. She hoped Jordan would forgive her for everything she had done; he was the only person who hadn't forsaken her, even when he had every reason to do so. But South London Crew as a whole were there for one reason and one reason only; rid the city of sickos and get on with their lives.

Coming out of the hug, Adelaide gave a nod towards Ed before giving him a smile, deciding words weren't needed to say how she felt about him.

"Where did you even get this army?" He asked, nodding towards the group behind Adelaide.

Adelaide looked back at her group for a moment before turning back, shrugging her shoulders. "Well, I was on my way out of town, going south, when I stumbled across this group, leaderless after their leader was taken and they needed a leader so I kind of accidentally became it. Trust me, they're on your side. All I have to do is give the order and they will follow you. We may be savages, but we do not turn on our master. You're safe."

Ed nodded once before stepping aside. "I suppose you'd wish to see where you'll be staying. I would say 'to meet everyone else too' but I think we both know that'll never happen."

Adelaide smirked, nodding her head as she raised a hand to signal the rest of her group to come over. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure nobody would want to even go near me. Not that I really give a crap, but whatever, we're used to it by this point."

Ed stepped aside and allowed Adelaide and her group to walk into Jordan's camp, breathing a sigh of relief when they had all gone inside. Although their leader was someone he knew, South London crew still scared the crap out of him. He knew that if he made one wrong move, then he would be in deep trouble.

Adelaide walked with her group through the camp, noticing all the younger kids practically screaming and running into their tents to hide from them while the slightly older kids were muttering amongst themselves about her, but she ignored them and kept her eyes straight ahead of her.

When she arrived at their part of the camp, she requested her people to stand down and relax after their long journey. Well, as much as they could relax while being surrounded by hundreds of kids who would wish they would die or leave them alone.

Her group made a campfire to keep them warm as nightfall began to set in, they began to relax as they stared into the flames and told stories of home and of things their parents would tell them. Children from nearby tents slowly began to eavesdrop on the stories they told of battles and how they saved the world.

Adelaide listened in with a small smile on her face until she looked up to see Jordan standing behind some of her men. Standing up, Adelaide's eyes began to brim with tears but they never fell. She stepped through her people to get nearer to him without interrupting the stories being told.

"Adelaide? Is that you?" Jordan asked, tears almost coming to his eyes as he saw one of his closest and most trusted people, one he long believed to be dead after hearing about her leaving the museum after the death of DogNut all those months beforehand. But there she was – bruised, battered and probably physically and mentally scarred for life but there all the same. Well,  _ **almost**_  the same.

Adelaide nodded her head slowly, a faint smile on her lips as she took slow and short steps forward. "The one and only."

She couldn't hold herself back, she ran towards him and threw her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as she could, her face burying itself into his shirt as she refused to let him go.

Jordan held onto her tightly, too, his eyes closing. There were so many things he wanted to tell her; not just what had happened over the year since they had last seen each other, but things he would never tell anyone else – that he was going blind and there would be nothing anyone could do to stop it. But one last request was fulfilled; he wanted to see her one last time before he lost his sight completely.

Adelaide was the one who broke the hug, forcing herself to smile. She was happy to see him, but it was a bittersweet reunion. Both of them knew that they were in a war and the likelihood of both of them surviving was slim – even with all the preparation they had done.

Jordan gently placed a hand on Adelaide's cheek, his thumb gently caressing over a scar under her eye, as if he was checking she was really there and he wasn't dreaming. "I thought you were dead."

Adelaide leaned into his touch a little, a light chuckle leaving her lips as she shook her head a little. "Nah, it'll take a lot more than that to kill me. You know me, I'm a survivor."

Jordan nodded, laughing a little. "I know you too well, shorty. Even after all this time, I still know you."

The pair fell silent afterwards, Jordan's hand dropping back to his side as they both tried to think of something to say. There was so much they needed to say to each other, but in that moment; there was nothing to really say. Everything had already been said, therefore all those words had lost their meaning.

"It's good to see you, General." Adelaide finally spoke up, a shaky smile spreading across her lips. Admittedly, being around Jordan made her nervous – not the kind of nervous that would cause her to reach for her sword for comfort, but the kind that gave her butterflies in her stomach… the good kind of nervous, if you could call it that. Not that she'd actually tell him or anyone else about it, it would be her secret for now.

Jordan smiled too, tucking a stray piece of Adelaide's hair behind her ear. "You too, Commander."

Just as Adelaide was about to speak up, she heard a voice behind her. One she had only heard in her mind for over three months. "Adelaide?"

Her head turned and her eyes began to water. "Esme?" She looked back towards Jordan who nodded his head, giving his approval to greet Esme before he took a few steps back and began to walk back to his part of the camp. after watching Jordan leave, Adelaide almost sprinted towards Esme and almost crashed into her. "Esme, oh my god. I thought you were gone," Adelaide forced back her tears as she clung to Esme tightly, but being careful not to crush her.

The pair held onto each other, Esme sobbing into Adelaide's shoulder. As much as she wanted to, Adelaide refused to let herself cry; she needed to be strong for Esme. "You're okay, baby. Mama's here, you're safe with me," she whispered into Esme's ear, picking up the crying girl and holding onto her, pressing kisses to the side of Esme's head.

Admittedly, Esme wasn't the lightest thing Adelaide had lifted and it made her back hurt – even more than it usually did – but she wanted to do it. She didn't ask about Hayley – somehow knowing her fate already, and she didn't want to upset Esme even further by bringing it up.

Keeping Esme in her arms, she walked back towards her camp. She assured her people that Esme was family and that she was now one of them, and if anyone disagreed, their head would be removed and used as bait. Or perhaps they would be banished from South London Crew and never allowed to return, which would be just as bad in this world.

Sitting down in front of the bonfire, Adelaide placed Esme on her lap and gently rocked her back and forth, whispering comforting things in her ear. Eventually, Esme stopped crying but she refused to let Adelaide go from her grasp.

Adelaide's people continued with their stories, with Adelaide somewhat listening as she cradled Esme. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she felt like she belonged. She had her people around her and now she had Esme back – she didn't need anything else and it was perfect.

Well,  _ **almost**_  perfect.

It was missing one person but she hadn't spoken about him in weeks; causing her to suppress all memories of him out of almost fear of being seen as weak by her own people.

Her tattoo and the photographs were the only reminders she had that he was real and not some nightmare her mind had made up to deal with the trauma of the things she'd lived through over the past year. She wanted to talk about him, but she knew it would be too painful for her to remember. Perhaps soon she would feel comfortable about talking about him. She hoped it would be soon, just so she would be able to properly move on.

"Adelaide? A word?" Ed asked, wearily looking at the glares he was given by Adelaide's people, their hands gripping their swords tightly as they glared at Ed, ready to attack at any moment's notice. He knew the stories as well as everyone did; if Adelaide gave the word, her guards would kill him within a heartbeat.

Adelaide nodded, moving Esme off her lap and walking through her people to get to Ed before walking with him to a more private place where they could talk without having to worry about anyone eavesdropping on their conversation. "What's up?"

Ed was visibly nervous, his fingers unable to keep still. "Listen, don't get offended but people are talking; they're saying your people are… savages. Cannibals, murderers, you kill your own for no reason other than they looked at you funny, you have fights to the death to handle small matters… none of that's true, right?"

Adelaide almost laughed, shaking her head. Ed relaxed a little but tensed up again when she began speaking, all trace of laughter and joking gone from her voice. "We all have a darkness inside of us, Ed, and we're all responsible for what happens when we let it out. We all have that primal instinct to survive by any means – that instinct has only intensified since the Revenant began to rise. Your people and my people may have different ideas of survival, but we both share the idea of fighting against this by any means possible."

"That didn't quite answer the question, Adelaide."

Adelaide rolled her eyes, her jaw tightening as her eyes narrowed a little. "We are what we are."

The conversation fell silent after that, the pair facing away from each other as they looked at the hundreds of kids that surrounded them. Both of them knew that not all of them would survive, but it was a burden they would both have to face. That would be one thing they'd have in common once again, other than losing their friends and surviving the impossible.

"Do you ever think about him?" Ed asked, breaking the silence as he looked back at Adelaide who never looked back at him, her eyes completely focused on something ahead of her.

Adelaide's heart skipped a beat inside her chest at his words but refused to let it show, it would be seen as weakness and weak was not something used to describe Adelaide, not anymore. "No, never."

_**Liar.** _

She hoped he wouldn't catch her lie but she was certain he noticed, but thankfully he didn't say anything about it. But before he could say anything, Adelaide left him and began to slowly walk back to her group. She tried to fight back her tears but she couldn't stop them from falling, and before she fully knew it, she was full on sobbing into her hands, her mind screaming at her to stop crying but nothing would stop it.

She was still crying when she came back to her camp, causing one of her personal guards to stand in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders, causing her to stop walking. "Commander, are you alright?"

Adelaide shook her head, unable to speak without sobbing and stumbling over her words.

"It was  _ **him**_  again, wasn't it?"

Adelaide nodded, trying to wipe away her tears – which were now black from her war paint – to stop herself from crying more but obviously failing as more continued to fall.

She knew what was about to come next; whenever she showed pain, she was physically hurt to show her that pain in the mind wasn't real and she could turn it off easily but physical pain was okay to feel. It was an unusual way to deal with pain but it taught Adelaide that to be the commander they needed her to be, she would have to be as cold as a December morning. And that she certainly would be.

Her guard reached to his belt, grabbing a small knife from it and used his other hand to grab Adelaide's hand and lead her towards the fire, her arm out stretched. Once she was in front of the flames and the palm of her hand began to feel hot from the flames, he brought the knife over the palm of her hand, cutting it from one side to the other.

Adelaide cringed a little as she closed her hand tightly, feeling the blood dripping from her cut. With tears still falling, she raised her hand once more and allowed the blood to drop into the fire, the smoke and her tears clouding her vision as she repeated the words she'd heard over a thousand times over the past few months. "From the ashes… we will rise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally had the Suicide Squad soundtrack playing while writing this, it's just so perfect for Adelaide's entrance for the war and her return to the other groups. You can all blame The 100 for this.
> 
> 11 pages and over four thousand words later; I hope it's a good introduction to how Adelaide's changed since from the last time we saw her.
> 
> bISEXUAL ADELAIDE HAS PROPERLY RISEN AND SHE IS READY TO TAKE OVER AND SLAY EVERYONE'S EXISTENCE.
> 
> I'll get more into Adelaide's backstory with how she became the commander in future chapters so all will be revealed soon.


	19. Chapter 19

In the morning, Adelaide was awake early and training with some of her warriors. Despite being in the middle of a war, the training never seemed to ever stop. Adelaide knew she needed to make sure her warriors were ready for war, even if she had to push them until breaking point. After all, they were known for their harsh punishments and even harder training routines.

During one of her breaks, she quickly noticed how one of her warriors weren’t entirely paying attention to her fight and got herself slammed to the ground. Rolling her eyes, Adelaide walked over towards the pair and helped the girl back onto her feet. “Pathetic. You’re better than this, Harper,” she hissed, her eyes narrowing.

Harper looked at Adelaide, nodding her head as she looked almost as if she was going to cry but she refused to let her tears fall. She blinked them back, swallowing her pride. “I’m sorry, Commander. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Adelaide cocked her head to one side, almost studying Harper’s face before she raised a hand and slapped Harper across the face. “It better not, because next time, I won’t be so kind.”

Rolling her eyes, Adelaide pushed past Harper and walked off, her second in command and guards following close behind her. She walked towards the edge of her part of the camp before stopping and sitting down on the grass, watching members of the Holloway, Tower and Museum Crew mingle, her fingertips grazing over her tattoo subconsciously.

She didn’t fully notice the small group of kids around the age of fourteen sit down in front of her, carrying small plates of disgusting looking food. Adelaide almost gagged at the smell of the food but forced herself to ignore it, just like she normally did with food.

The kids figured that since Adelaide didn’t have her war paint on and didn’t look like she was going to kill everyone, she wasn’t as scary; therefore, easier to talk to.

"How did your people survive after the fire?" One asked after a few moments of silence.

Adelaide shrugged, looking down at her dirty and chipped nails before quickly covering her tattoo with her sleeve. "It's rather easy – the Revenant don't come onto our side. After the fire, they just left and haven’t returned since. But within the first year; we lost around seventy percent of our current population. Most of us starved to death, but others got hypothermia. You talk about how hard it was on your side, but you forget that a vast majority of your side wasn’t burned to the ground, leaving you little choice to survival but turning into what you named us ‘savages’. We had to make difficult choices to ensure our survival.”

“You didn’t kill people and eat them, did you?”

Adelaide didn’t answer for a while, giving a sideways glance towards the group, noticing it slowly get larger and larger as kids slowly began to sit in front of her. “We did what we had to.”

Looking at the kids in front of her, she felt like she was back at the museum – where she would tell the younger kids stories and she’d leave out all the gore and replace it with something else. But that life was gone and now she was a completely different person because of it.

"How did you do it?" Another kid asked, sitting up straighter as he looked up at Adelaide.

Adelaide frowned, sitting forward a little while also being careful not to get too close to the kids. "Do what?"

"Become the commander; the leader of them?" He clarified, sitting back down a little.

"You guys better settle in, this is going to be a long story and not one for the weak stomach...” Adelaide sighed heavily, her shoulders drooping as she sighed before licking her lips and starting her story.

"I came to the South to get away from everything, to be alone. I had no idea that there were survivors – I mean, sure, I'd heard the stories like everyone else but I just guessed they weren't true. Anyway, I arrived at the gates that blocked off their side from this to see a whole group of sickos there, breaking down the gates and them struggling to keep them back.

I knew I needed to help them so I did, I dropped my stuff and grabbed my weapons and joined the fight. I did the best I could but their previous commander was dead before I got there; I would've said I saw his body but by the time I arrived, it was just a sword and some torn clothes.

After all the sickos were taken care of, they let me in. Mostly as a thank you but well, I did need to go through their camp to go further south. They asked why I was there and I told them. They knew who I was; the girl who survived the Great Fire, the battle of Lambeth Bridge and countless attacks from the sickos. They needed me more than I needed them and they knew it.

They told me their commander was dead and if I would be willing to step in – since I did save their lives and all. I said yes but the second in command was pissed since he was technically in command now and he had no say in the matter and he wanted to remain as commander. In their world; there was only one way to settle this – a fight to the death. The winner takes all, the loser dies.

Giving that I didn't really have much left to live for; I accepted his challenge.

If I died, at least I’d go down fighting; a warrior’s death.

The fight took place the next day and I was honestly prepared to die in that arena; I knew I didn’t have the strength to go against someone who had more experience than I did so I mentally made my goodbyes and prepared myself for my death.

Boy, was I wrong.

When the fight came to be, I was given a sword to fight with since well as you know my weapons were destroyed by the gym bunnies and my throwing knives weren’t exactly going to be helpful against another person. And they were serious about this fight; we were given proper weapons to fight with – none of that wooden sword bullshit. This was the real deal.

The sound of drums and people’s shouting flooded my eardrums, almost deafening me as I walked into the arena. It was like an old football stadium but the walls around the grass were higher – probably to keep the fighters from going into the crowd but whatever. And there was no grass, probably to stop the fighters from falling over, I’m not quite sure.

Over the sound of drums, a voice spoke up. 'Your challenger; Adelaide Milton of North London Crew. She will be going against William Gregory of South London Crew. Their fight will be to the death; the winner will become our next commander and lead us to war. In single combat, there is only one rule; someone must die today. You may begin.’

Before I realized it, William was charging at me at full speed. I barely had time to react and get out of the way as his sword narrowly missed my face. I avoided his attacks, dodging some while doing backflips over others; it seems all those years spent in the ice rink and the gym actually paid off – just not in the way my mother would’ve thought.

I don’t remember most of the fight, to be honest, I don’t even think I **_want_** to remember. There was a lot of blood, that’s what I mostly got from it. But what I do remember is that my sword was knocked out of my hands and thrown away while I was kicked in the stomach and I fell to the floor. I saw William’s sword over me, ready to be plunged into my chest.

I closed my eyes, awaiting and accepting my death but something inside of me told me that I wasn’t going to die like that. I wasn’t going to die a coward. DogNut didn’t die for me to die like that.

Somehow, I had the strength to kick his legs to knock him down as I forced myself back onto my feet and sprinted towards my sword, picking it up just in time to dodge one of his attacks.

I hit William with the handle of my sword and kicked him in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground. I stood over him, my grip growing tighter on my sword. 'Get up, this won't be a fair fight if you don't get up,' I told him, knowing that I didn't have the guts to kill him. I killed sickos, not people. I protected people, I didn’t kill them.

William shook his head, throwing away his weapon. 'You've earned this position, Adelaide of North London. Take it, it's yours.'

I didn’t wait to be told twice so I shoved my sword into his chest and watched as the life left his eyes but I knew the crowd around me wouldn’t be satisfied with that kind of death. They wanted a show; this whole time, that’s what they wanted. They didn’t want to see one of us die, they wanted a show.

I knew I had to cut off his head, so I did. I had to prove myself that I was a savage like they were and give them what they wanted. I held it up by his hair and said the only thing that came to mind as the entire crowd fell silent. 'Are you not entertained?!' I shouted, throwing away his head before storming out of the centre of the arena, intending to leave as the crowd erupting into shouts and cheers. I paused as I was about to exit the arena as I listened to the crowd, they weren’t just cheering anymore; they were chanting my name.

‘Adelaide of North London is victorious. All hail our new commander!’

That was when I knew that my life would change. I wasn’t going to be Adelaide of North London Crew anymore, I was Commander Adelaide of South London. I proved myself worthy of the title and they accepted me as their leader.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the badass story of how Adelaide became commander and I think this was one of my favourite chapters to write. I’ll get more into the story next chapter, this was mostly a filler and a flashback but it was kind of necessary.


	20. Chapter 20

From the edge of David’s camp, Jester watched Jordan’s camp through his binoculars and almost dropped them once he saw Adelaide. Like most people, he’d heard the stories about her – she’d become infamous throughout London as the coward who abandoned her people but this would’ve been the first time he would’ve actually seen her.

But the reason why he almost dropped them was because he had been informed that Adelaide had been killed but there she was, alive and well and seemingly the leader of South London crew.

**_Double shit._ **

Holding onto the binoculars tighter, Jester quickly made his way through the camp and towards The Dorchester Hotel – David’s new main base of operations. Running into the hotel, he immediately sprinted towards David’s room only to halt when the door opened.

Instead of it being David like Jester expected it to be; a girl with dark chest level hair stumbled out, the door closing behind her as she almost drunkenly rested against the wall beside the door, completely breathless. Her lipstick and hair were a mess and judging by the state of her clothes – or lack thereof – it was fairly obvious what she was doing in his room.

“Dorothy, you know you’re not allowed in there.” Jester folded his arms over his chest, trying to keep his eyes away from the girl’s bare skin and on her face.

The girl – Dorothy – rolled her eyes, wiping around her mouth with her finger before placing it in her mouth, smirking as she walked slowly towards Jester, her legs wobbling a little. “It’s ‘Your Majesty’ to you, Jester.”

Jester kept his feet in place, glaring at Dorothy as she walked towards him. “Sleeping with the King doesn’t make you a queen, it doesn’t work that way.”

Dorothy laughed, pushing past Jester. “You’re just jealous because I got to do it before you could, Pan-Head.”

After watching Dorothy walk down the hall, Jester finally entered David’s room, finding him sitting at his desk with a small glass of whiskey beside him. His shirt was open and in a complete state of disarray, like Dorothy, his hair was a mess and it was once again obvious what had been going on.

Jester swallowed hard, placing the binoculars down on the desk, the sound causing David to look at Jester and quickly move to button up his shirt and try to go into professional mode rather than be a boy who had probably just had the best few hours of his life.

David cleared his throat, moving his chair closer towards his desk. “Ah, Jester, have South London crew arrived?”

“Yes, sir, they’ve arrived just like you said they would.”

David nodded once, his hands flat on the desk. "Who's the leader of the South London crew? Is it that bastard what's-his-name... DogNut?"

Jester shook his head, carefully thinking his next words. "Think of someone worse... think of the **_only_** person worse than DogNut. The one who wants revenge for what we did... to **_her_**."

David paused for a moment, looking down at his desk before looking back up to Jester, his head shaking. "No... I thought we killed her, I was informed that she had been killed.”

“It seems we might have killed the wrong person…”

David gripped his desk, trying to calm himself. “If Adelaide is still alive and the leader of the biggest group in the whole of the city, we need her on our side… bring her in.”

**_~#~_ **

Back at Jordan’s camp, the group in front of Adelaide had grown, and even some of the older kids had slowly began to come over. Even after all the time she’d been away, Adelaide still had the power to completely enthral everyone around her with her stories – a skill that never really left her.

As she was speaking, she quickly noticed older kids hanging around at the back of the group of children. She could tell that they were in charge just by looking at them; she guessed that they were the infamous Holloway Crew – the best fighters in North London. She would’ve said the whole of London, but she knew that although they were good; they were nowhere near as good as South London Crew.

She watched a couple of them walk towards her, mentally preparing herself for formal introductions – something she despised doing. She would’ve always be introduced the same way; Commander Adelaide of South London, formally North London but left after the death of her friend.

**_He was more than a friend, he was everything to me. My life, my happiness, the only person who mattered in this world._ **

“Commander Adelaide of South London Crew?” A voice from behind Adelaide spoke up, causing the scene to freeze completely and turn towards whoever spoke up.

Adelaide’s eyes narrowed as she slowly turned around to face whoever said her name, her gaze hardening as she saw who it was. “Fuck you want, Shit-Face?”

“King David is requesting you.” Jester almost stuttered out, his eyes wearily looking between Adelaide and her guards. Seeing Adelaide from afar was unnerving enough, but actually being face to face with her was enough to make even the most fearless fighters tremble.

Adelaide rolled her eyes, forcing herself to get up, cringing a little at her tense muscles. “I’ll do introductions when I get back, but for now; Twat-Face here wants me to see King Ass-Hat.”

“I like her already,” a boy with dark and close-cropped hair muttered into the ear of a girl next to him, her dark eyes focused on Adelaide as she nodded. Both of them knew the stories of the infamous Adelaide; half their crew knew her as the coward who left her own people, while the other half knew her as the commander of death.

Adelaide stretched out her muscles and cracked her knuckles, emitting an uncomfortably loud series of cracks, causing a few of the younger kids to cringe a little. “Alright, guys, time to go.”

Jester shook his head, taking a step towards Adelaide and stood between her and her guards. “No, no guards or anyone else – just you.”

Adelaide’s eyes narrowed again, her arms folding over her chest as she took a step towards Jester. “No, no, this isn’t a negotiation. They come with me or I’m not going. They have strict orders to protect me at all costs and they will follow those orders, no matter what. If David wanted to see me that badly, he’ll have to deal with my guards as well.”

Knowing how dangerous Adelaide and her guards were, Jester didn’t protest any further and allowed Adelaide to bring her guards with her. He was worried how David would react after finding out that Adelaide had brought guards with her – thinking that David would probably have them removed. But then he’d probably have his head removed as a result.

In the end, Adelaide’s guards waited outside the door to David’s room while Adelaide went in alone, her hand never quite leaving her sword. One wrong move on David’s part and his head would be on the floor quicker than he can say “I’m sorry”.

“Adelaide, you’re looking as lovely as always,” David smiled in Adelaide’s direction, a hand reaching out towards her.

Adelaide rolled her eyes, her arms folding over her chest. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Twat-Face. If you called me here to suck your dick, you're both shit outta luck. You're about a year too late for that crap. Now, why did you really want to see me? Because I’m guessing that fawning over me wasn’t on the plan."

David looked at his hand for a second before dropping it, awkwardly placing it back by his side. “Yes well, I called you here to ask if you wanted to join my side – I believe we can help each other out.”

Adelaide remained quiet for a few moments, almost thinking over his offer, her eyes narrowing a little before answering. “No.”

David frowned, taking a single step towards Adelaide. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I mean ‘no’, do you want to hear it in German? **_Nein_**! I do not want to join your side, David.”

David’s eyebrows raised a little as he took more steps towards Adelaide. "If I remember correctly; they cast you out. They don't accept you as one of their own anymore, but if you join my side, we will accept you."

Adelaide shook her head, also taking a few steps towards David, keeping her arms folded across her chest. “Clearly, you haven’t heard the stories correctly; I left at my own accord. They didn’t cast me out, I left and now they see me as a traitor. There’s a difference.”

Their faces were inches apart from each other now, and David could feel Adelaide’s hot breath on his face. Properly looking at her, he could really see how much she had changed over the year since he’d last seen her. The dark circles under her eyes and various cuts and scars that littered her face made her appear to be almost a completely different person than the original girl who had slapped him across the face.

**_She was still pretty, though._ **

**_Well, not as pretty as Dorothy but still pretty all the same._ **

David tried to cup Adelaide's face but before he had the chance to touch her, she grabbed his arm and forced him to the floor, a foot on his chest to hold him down. "If you dare try to touch me or even look at me in that way again, I will not hesitate to send a team of warriors to your room and you will not just be killed, your head will be removed and used as a drinking cup, your blood will be taken and used as war paint and the remainder of your cold, lifeless body will be used as bait for the Revenant. Do I make myself clear?"

David didn’t say a word as he nodded his head; for the first time in what seemed like forever, he actually feared for his life.

"I'll see myself out.” Adelaide removed her foot off his chest and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. “Next time I see that prick, I swear to god I’ll kill him,” she muttered under her breath as she walked down the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adelaide is so done with David’s crap by this point; her hatred for him only grows. I will write about what David and Jester did to Adelaide in a future chapter – all will be revealed soon.  
> The addition of the Dorothy character may or may not be made clear in another chapter – or another story; we may never know which. We’re not going to talk about that scene, okay? It happened and we will never talk about it again. Although we can talk about pan-head.


	21. Chapter 21

When Adelaide arrived back at Jordan’s camp, her angry demeanour hadn’t changed but she knew she needed to put it away due to not wanting to scare the other kids. Not that it stopped her before but she knew that it wouldn’t help in her current situation.

Even with her anger still present and her back constantly hurting, Adelaide forced herself to smile as she walked towards the group of children who were still sitting on the grass but instead of eating, they were chatting amongst themselves. She gave a slight nod towards the dark-haired girl and the boy beside her she was about to meet before she was taken to see David before walking towards them, stretching out her back as she did.

The girl whispered something in the boy’s ear before she went off, leaving the boy alone in front of Adelaide. "Hi, I'm Achilleus," Achilleus introduced himself, awkwardly holding his hand out.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Adelaide,” Adelaide took his hand and shook it once before dropping it.

"Yes, I know who you are; the Queen of the Savages they called you in my camp."

Adelaide almost burst into laughter but kept it as a light chuckle to not make it awkward. "Queen? Me? Nah, I ain't no queen. A commander? Yes. A queen? No."

The pair fell into an awkward silence afterwards, neither of them knowing what to say until Adelaide spoke up again. “Listen, is there another name I could call you? Achilleus sounds **_way_** too formal.”

"Most people call me Akkie."

"No way... that's awesome. My nickname’s Addie. Addie and Akkie – you gotta admit, that does sound like a cool combination."

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

Another awkward silence fell across them, Achilleus looking away from Adelaide for a moment. Adelaide followed Achilleus's line of sight as he looked at a boy who walked past, the pair locking eyes for a moment before the boy moved on.

"You like him."

"What?"

"You ** _like_** him." Adelaide repeated in a slightly mocking tone.

"Shut up," Achilleus muttered. "How did you know?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Adelaide smirked, folding her arms over her chest. "I can tell by the way you look at him; I see that look all the time back home. There's this girl – Hannah, my second, actually – she's got this crush on one of my guards and every day she gives him this look of 'look back at me if you like me', he's never looked back once but she never gives up hope. It's kind of cute, really."

“So, what, you’re like the love expert now?” Achilleus folded his arms too, an eyebrow raising.

“Yeah, I am. Now, go talk to him.”

“What? I’m not going to talk to him.”

Adelaide rolled her eyes, moving to stand behind Achilleus and slowly began to push him towards Will’s direction. “Yes you are, now go. Go talk to your lover boy, you might thank me later.”

Not wanting to argue with his new friend, Achilleus reluctantly walked towards Will slowly, cursing under his breath as he did. He looked back numerous times at Adelaide to glare at her, Adelaide gave him a sweet smile and waved him on before chuckling a little to herself.

After watching Achilleus for a few minutes, Adelaide turned her back on him to see her second in command – Hannah – standing in front of her. “Commander, there’s someone else who wants to meet you.”

Adelaide nodded, folding her arms over her chest. “Okay, let me see them. I think I have enough energy to see one other person before my back gives out.”

Hannah rested a hand on Adelaide’s arm, looking into her commander’s eyes. “You don’t have to meet him, Adelaide. I can tell him that now is not a good time.”

Adelaide shrugged off Hannah’s hand, shaking her head. “I’m fine, Hannah. Go get him and let’s get this over with.”

Hannah nodded and disappeared for a moment before returning to Adelaide with a boy close behind her. Just by looking at him, Adelaide could tell that he was an outsider in North London terms; he would’ve easily fit in if he was South London Crew – his outfit of black leather, chains, big boots, and a collection of trophy human ears around his belt made him look like one of Adelaide’s guards.

**_Perhaps if we both survive this, I could ask him if he wanted to join; we could use someone like him._ **

"Adelaide, this is Ryan. Ryan, this is Adelaide." Hannah introduced, pointing to Adelaide and Ryan in turn.

Ryan waved off Hannah’s hand, removing his mask off his face and let it hang around his neck. "Yeah, I know who she is... she's a badass."

“I’ll leave you two to get acquainted.” Hannah raised her hands up in surrender before leaving.

The pair watched Hannah leave, the smirks on their faces mirroring each other as Ryan spoke up. "So, you're the one who beheaded someone and kept his head as a trophy."

Adelaide chuckled, nodding towards Ryan’s mask. "So, you're the Leather-Face wannabe."

Ryan chuckled, too, his eyebrows raising a little. “Oh, where have you been all my life?”

Adelaide raised an eyebrow, folding her arms over her chest. “Oh, you know, I’ve been around.”

Half an hour later; the pair were sitting on the grass and trying to out-gross each other, but all they were achieving was making many of the kids around them want to puke from all the things they were saying to each other in an attempt to gross them out, not that they were successful. Both of them were far too much alike in the things they had done to survive in their new world to really be grossed out by anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Adelaide finally got to meet Akkie and Ryan and beautiful brotps have been formed – although I didn’t plan on Addie and Ryan being quite so flirty with each other. I might take a break from this story because I’m re-reading the series and I’m only up to reading The Fallen (fourth book since I’m reading it in chronological order) and it’ll probably take me a while to get to The End and I kind of want things to be somewhat correct. Unless you guys want it to be slightly un-canon, then I can just continue the road I’m going down now – just let me know!
> 
> Although I have no idea where to go from here – any ideas? I’m thinking of having the meeting of everyone deciding who’s in charge but I don’t know if I’ll go with that idea.


	22. Chapter 22

Adelaide didn’t quite understand why she was required to go to a meeting organised by Jordan to decide who was going to be in charge. South London Crew didn’t play well with authority, unless it was their own. They’d always been like that, ever since their inception over a year beforehand. She was there for a war, not for anything else.

Adelaide looked around the room at the faces of each leader; there was Ed of the Tower crew looking as handsome as he always did even with his scar, a scruffy looking fourteen-year-old with glasses by the name of Darren who was the leader of the Finchley crew. The only other girls in the room were Maxie of the Holloway crew and Brooke. Adelaide felt out of place in that room, surrounded by all these leaders. They all seemed so... together with themselves while Adelaide looked more like a savage compared to them.

Well, she was the infamous Adelaide, after all. The Queen of the Savages – a title she absolutely hated.

She was barely paying attention to what was being said during the meeting, just focusing on everyone else’s faces. Her eyes focused on a boy with dark hair in the corner, most of his head and face covered by a hooded cloak but from what Adelaide could see, she knew his face.

"No fucking way... **_Dylan Peake_**? You piece of shit! What the fuck are you doing here?" Adelaide almost shouted, stepping towards him as she completely interrupted

“ ** _Adelaide Milton_**? What the fuck are **_you_** doing here?” Shadowman took a step forward until the pair were face to face with one another, Shadowman barely an inch or two taller than Adelaide.

The pair were silent for a few moments, just looking at each other before they began to have an argument over a mixture of not knowing the other was alive and Shadowman stealing Adelaide’s cookies from her home while she was out over a year beforehand.

"They bicker like an old married couple," Maxie whispered into Blue’s ear, just loud enough for both Adelaide and Shadowman to hear.

"We're not together!" Adelaide and Shadowman shouted in unison, the pair glaring at Maxie as they both simultaneously crossed their arms over their chests.

Jordan sighed, moving his glasses to rub his eyes. Listening to Adelaide and Shadowman bicker like small children was making his head hurt, even more than it already was. “Can we get back to the matter at hand, please? Before you two kill each other or change this meeting into a school reunion."

Adelaide and Shadowman looked at each other, then to Jordan, muttering a “sorry” before stepping back from each other awkwardly.

“Thank you,” Jordan readjusted himself in his chair, looking directly at Adelaide. “Now, Adelaide, we need your opinion on behalf of South London crew; who would you propose to be in charge?”

“Is this a serious question? South London bows down to no man other than our own.” Adelaide shrugged her shoulders, forcing herself to smile.

“But **_we_** don’t take orders from murderers.” Someone spoke up, causing Adelaide’s head to snap towards them; it was Ed, his arms folded tightly over his chest.

"We might be murderers, Edward Carter. But at least we're honest about it. But **_you_**?" Adelaide took slow steps towards Ed and Brooke, her eyes cold and calculating. "You lie, you kill, you betray, you torture, you steal, and for what? So you can say you're the good guys? None of you are the good guys, none of you are even close to being good; every single one of you have blood on your hands that you’ve washed off to pretend was never there so you can carry on believing that you’re the good guys. I may be the Queen of the Savages, but at least I'm honest about it."

As Adelaide walked towards them, Brooke gripped Ed’s arm and hid a little behind him. Ed still stood tall against Adelaide, showing no signs of fear. “You used to believe that there was good in everyone.”

“I was wrong. North London taught me that people are cruel and violent and selfish to the core. But don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon.”

Adelaide stormed out of the room, slamming the doors behind her, a deafening silence falling over the room.

Eventually, it was Kyle who broke the silence by stepping forward to face Jordan. “And **_that_** , Jordan, is why we do not allow South London crew anywhere near us. They’re nothing but cold-blooded killers; we’ve all heard the stories. Do we really want **_our_** people to be around theirs?”

“I see your concerns, Kyle. But we need South London Crew, they’re the largest group and have the best fighters in the entire city. Without them, we might not survive this fight.”

“Mark my words, Jordan. Sooner or later; that… **_bitch_** will kill one of our own and say that it’s fair.”

Outside, Adelaide angrily watched the kids around her before watching the leaders leave their meeting almost half an hour later. Honestly, she was regretting ever coming back to North London, even if it was to fight against the revenant. She despised almost everyone there, and they despised her back.

Before she could do anything else, one of her guards – Edison – came running up to her, completely breathless but composed himself enough to form a coherent sentence. "Adelaide, I know who killed Clara... he's here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short-ish update but this is kind of a prelude to one of the biggest chapters in the whole story – shit is gonna get real.
> 
> Anyways; I am finally 20 (my birthday was on the 17th yay me) – I have left the realm of teenage-hood behind and I’m now somewhat an adult. I just have one question; who in their right mind let me adult? I cannot adult. I don’t even know how an oven works. Like, that should be a dead giveaway that I should never ever be allowed to adult.


	23. Chapter 23

Adelaide stared at Edison for a while before she spoke up, the word leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. “Who?” She felt numb, remembering the feeling of her heart completely shattering the second she heard that Clara had been killed. Just when she thought she’d have another chance of being happy after **_his_** death, that chance was ripped away from her.

“His name is Asher…”

Adelaide felt the anger rise within her as she gripped her sword. She had a name now; she had a target and she was going to get her revenge one way or another.

From beside her, Jordan noticed how angry Adelaide was and knowing her; she was ready to explode. “Adelaide, stand down. I know what you’re about to do and I’m ordering you not to do it.”

"I don't take orders from you, you know that by now.” Adelaide told Jordan firmly before turning her attention back to Edison. “Take me to him.”

Jordan tried to protest but he was ignored by both Adelaide and Edison who had both walked away from him, trying to find Asher amongst the crowd of people that surrounded them. He watched the pair for a moment before walking after them.

"Would DogNut be proud of you if he saw the person you've become?" He almost shouted after Adelaide, just to get some kind of reaction out of her and maybe make her stop what she was doing. Perhaps he went too far by mentioning DogNut and he instantly regretted it, knowing that mentioning him would’ve probably upset her.

Instead of getting the reaction he was hoping for, Jordan was faced with Adelaide’s cold-hearted answer. "He's dead, Jordan. I will not mourn his death anymore, that time has passed. I want vengeance and I will get it.”

As soon as her words left her lips, Jordan stopped dead in his tracks. This **_wasn’t_** Adelaide. The Adelaide he knew and loved would’ve stopped at the very mention of DogNut and refused to go on, not almost completely ignore his entire existence and carry on with her mission of vengeance. Jordan was far too shocked by Adelaide’s answer to follow her and watched her and Edison disappear into the crowd, not saying a single word.

Fairly quickly, Edison found Asher’s group. His group weren’t the most impressive – it really was just him and three rather ugly looking boys. But Adelaide didn’t take much time to look at his group, she was more focused on Asher.

She eyed his dirty and ripped clothes carefully, checking for any weapons. She found one; a handgun on his waist. She knew she needed to take it from him so she wouldn’t get hurt during their exchange happened. But she needed to wait for the right possible moment.

Asher looked back at her, his eyes narrowing as he looked between Adelaide and Edison. Asher knew full well who he was talking to – he would’ve had to have been living under a rock for the past few months to not know. “Can I help you, **_Adelaide_**?”

Adelaide’s jaw clenched, her eyes narrowing like his. "You killed her, didn't you?"

"Your little girlfriend? She was stealing from my property." Asher said simply, shrugging his shoulders as if he just ordered food – not admitting to murder.

"An entire IKEA store is not your property, Asher. We were not in anyone's territory, we made sure of it. We went to that store for weeks and nothing happened, what changed?"

Asher shrugged again. “We got our hands on it and your little bitch just got in the way.”

Adelaide almost growled then, pushing Asher back forcefully. “You take that back right now!”

Asher smirked, talking a step forward and towering over Adelaide, completely unaffected by her push. “Make me, bitch.”

Adelaide didn’t move for a moment before she nodded towards Edison and another one of her guards who forced Asher to his knees while she took the gun from his waist and raised it against his head.

"Adelaide, stop." Ed almost shouted at Adelaide from behind her, trying to place a hand on her shoulder.

Adelaide shrugged his hand off, not looking at him nor at the large crowd that had gathered around the scene. "Stay out of this, Ed. This has nothing to do with you."

"This isn't who you are!"

"It is now." Adelaide’s hand shook as she held the gun, her finger over the trigger. “Why did you do it?”

Asher was panicking now, visibly afraid as he tried to get out of the grip of Adelaide’s guards. "David told me to do it! He told me where your team would be and told me to kill the main girl in the group, assuring me that it would’ve been you. I didn't have a choice! Please don't do this!"

Adelaide shook her head, taking a deep breath to steady herself. She wanted to stop but she **_couldn’t_** ; she needed to kill Asher, and once she killed him, her mission would be complete. Then she’d be able to go home and never return. She would’ve avenged Clara and seen Jordan again; that was her plan all along, not really to fight in a war.

"Please, Adelaide, you don't have to do this!" Asher almost screamed at her, desperately trying to break free by this point but it was all in vain.

"Yes, I do. Blood must have blood," Adelaide muttered to herself as she pulled the trigger, watching Asher fall to the ground. She barely registered the sound of the gun go off and the screams all around her from terrified children that witnessed the event right in front of them. Rolling her eyes, she turned away from Asher’s body and thrust the gun into Ed's chest, almost pushing him backwards from the force of her.

As she walked back to her part of the camp, she passed Brooke but showed no emotion towards her and knocked her shoulder with Brooke’s as she went past, never once acknowledging her as if Brooke wasn’t even there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If it wasn’t clear in this chapter; David ordered Asher to kill Adelaide because she was one of the only people who could stand against him and since she wouldn’t join his side, he would have her killed (because he’s kind of a dick). David knew that a small group would go to IKEA for supplies and was led by a dark-haired girl and assumed that it was Adelaide, thus getting Asher to kill her. But in reality; Asher unknowingly killed Clara instead.  
> I’ve somewhat figured out where I want to go with this story (finally innit) and I’m going to try to finish this story before I go back to school in October and then I can get on with more fanfics I have planned out.


	24. Chapter 24

Adelaide sat at the edge of her part of the camp, Esme sitting in front of her, playing with some dirty looking dolls she had found. Adelaide looked around her cautiously while also tying Esme’s hair into some intricate braids like she was wearing. The only sound between the pair was Esme’s soft but somewhat off-key humming as she played.

After a while of silence between them, Adelaide finally spoke up. “Hey, you know Paddy, right?”

Esme nodded, her humming coming to a halt. “He’s my friend, a bit weird, though.”

Adelaide smirked, fully focused on Esme’s hair as she finished the final braid and began to tie it tightly. “Yeah, well, when the time comes, I want you to stay with him, okay? I want you safe.”

“But I wanna be with you, mama!”

“No, baby, you stay with Paddy and I will come back for you. I promise. And we’ll go far away from here and we don’t have to come back.” Adelaide pressed a kiss to the side of Esme’s head, giving her a tight hug.

“Ever?”

“Never ever.”

The pair hugged for a little while longer, not saying anything to one another until Adelaide noticed Jordan and another person – a girl slightly shorter than Adelaide with light blonde hair – walking towards them. “Is it time?” Adelaide asked, her grip on Esme’s body growing tighter.

Jordan nodded, the girl taking a step forward and placed a hand on Esme’s arm, giving the younger girl a gentle smile. Esme slowly released Adelaide from her grasp and went towards the blonde girl, giving a small wave to Adelaide before the pair of them walked through the camp towards the Natural History Museum where the other kids were.

Adelaide noticed Jordan didn’t leave, frowning a little she took a step towards him. “What’s wrong?”

Jordan sighed, almost avoiding answering the question before he spoke up. "There was a vote, Addie. Almost everyone voted to banish you and your entire group and never be allowed to return. But I decided to give you a second chance on the one condition that you don't kill any of our own again."

Adelaide frowned, folding her arms over her chest. “You know that’s a promise I cannot keep – not my problem you keep murderers in your camp.”

 ** _I could say the same about yours_** , that was what Jordan wanted to say but he knew that it would only add fuel to the fire. Instead, he clenched his jaw and kept his cool. “Just don’t let it happen again, Addie. I’m serious.”

Sighing heavily, Adelaide dropped her arms and nodded. “Okay, I’ll try.”

Jordan just shrugged his shoulders and left Adelaide’s part of the camp without another word.

Adelaide watched him leave, sighing heavily once again. She knew that no matter what she did, she would’ve been kicked out regardless. In order to keep her place in the camp, Adelaide knew she needed an alliance but she knew nobody in the camp would be willing to make one, so she needed to find someone who wasn’t there. **_Nicola, she wasn’t here_**. “Harper, I need you to go to Parliament.”

**_~#~_ **

Several hours after Harper left, the sky was dark and bonfires around the camp had been lit with kids surrounding all of them. Adelaide was sat in front of hers, frequently looking around her to see if Harper would return but nothing had happened yet. She was worried that one of her best wouldn’t be coming back at a time when she needed them most.

**_Just another name in a long list of the fallen that have died by my hand._ **

Out of the dusk, the long blonde hair of Harper came towards the group, a large grin on her face. Adelaide stood up and almost screamed at her as she walked towards her. "Harper! Where the fuck have you been? You've been gone for seven hours!"

Harper shrugged her shoulders, the grin never leaving her face. "So?"

"It's a forty-minute walk!"

“Not my fault, okay? I got distracted.”

Adelaide narrowed her eyes a little and took a closer look at Harper as the pair of them walked back towards their bonfire. It took her a while to piece it together and when she did, she almost shuddered. "You didn't... **_please_** tell me you didn't. You know what? I don't want to know. Do we have confirmation of an alliance?"

"Yes, we do."

"Great. But was it **_really_** necessary?"

"Probably not, it just sort of happened."

Adelaide rolled her eyes, sitting back down in front of the fire and poking the fire with a large stick. "Y'know, sometimes I worry deeply about you. It genuinely keeps me awake at night, just at the thought of how you somehow haven't died yet."

Several meters away, Ed and Brooke were sat in front of their own small campfire, Ed was glaring at Adelaide. “Why the hell did Jordan even vote to keep her in? Adelaide is nothing but a murderer – Kyle was right.”

Brooke looked at him, shrugging her shoulders. “Maybe you’re right, but we need Adelaide either way.”

“Either way, it’s clear that she’s only here to wipe us all out.”

"You really don't get it, do you? Adelaide isn't here because she wants to be, she's here because she **_has_** to be. It's all because of Jordan. That's why she's here. She owes him her life; he gave her a position back at the Imperial War Museum to ensure her safety, he gave her a machine gun to use at the battle of Lambeth Bridge – without him, she wouldn't be here... She'd do **_anything_** for him, she'd **_kill_** for him and this is the infamous commander of death we're talking about here, she doesn't kill for anyone but Adelaide would... Anyone looking at her and didn't know about her past with DogNut, they would've guessed she was in love with Jordan." Brooke explained, shrugging her shoulders once more.

Ed frowned a little, looking towards Brooke. “And how do you know that?”

“I lived with her for a year, I’ve seen the way she looks at Jordan and let me tell you – she ain’t looked at anyone like that since DogNut. She looked at DogNut and saw the love of her life, she looks at Jordan and sees the light at the end of the darkness. And plus, Jordan looks at her and he sees the only person who matters to him; trust me, I’ve seen it. And besides, I’m a **_girl_** , I’m supposed to notice this love crap.”

Staring into the roaring flames in front of her, Adelaide said five words that would later change her life forever – in fact, change the lives of almost every kid in the city. “I’m going to kill David.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter was the little slice comedy relief we all needed but didn’t realise we needed it until it happened. Sorry this was such a mess, it’s kind of a filler chapter because the next one will be long as hell and very important to the story. But hey, you got some drama, comedy, Adelaide and Esme adorableness and Harper’s completely uncensored gayness.


	25. Chapter 25

Silence fell across the small group around the bonfire, staring at Adelaide, their eyes almost popping out of their skulls. “What did you say?” Harper spoke up, her voice shaking a little.

Adelaide stared into the flames, plucking at the grass beside her feet, not looking at the almost horrified faces around her as she repeated herself. "I'm going to kill David. I’m not asking for permission; I’m telling you that I’m doing it. It doesn’t matter what you do, or what you say. The king will fall tonight.”

“When do we leave?” Edison asked, his initial shock leaving his face and going almost emotionless.

Adelaide smirked, slowly standing up. “We leave in one hour, get as many weapons as possible and meet me by the edge of the camp in ten minutes, and try not to make it obvious.”

Everyone all collectively nodded and left the bonfire to get their equipment for the trip. Adelaide walked towards her tent, but halted almost immediately as soon as she saw Jordan inside. She took slow and cautious steps towards him, Adelaide opened her mouth to speak but she was cut off.

“I know what you’re about to do… Adelaide, I’m begging you, please don’t do this.” Jordan almost whispered as he grasped Adelaide’s arm, staring into her eyes, looking for any kind of emotion.

Adelaide stared back at Jordan, shaking her head slowly as her eyes were almost about to spill tears. “You’re driven to fix everything for everyone, but you can’t fix this. I have to do this on my own, and you have to let me.”

“If you do this, there will be no going back. I won’t be able to stop the other leaders from voting you out.”

“I know, but David has to pay for what he’s done and I’m willing to take the consequences.”

“Adelaide, I-”

“Jordan, **_don’t_**. Think about it this way; you get what you wanted, you get the commander of death you asked for when you wanted every group to join the fight.” She almost spat out her words, grabbing her sword and her throwing knives before walking out of her tent again, not looking back.

She met up with a small group of her people and began discussing their plans to attack David in his room in the Dorchester hotel – the only issues were how they’d be able to get in and out of there without being caught and be able to kill David without someone noticing. The group was small – only five members were there; Harper, Edison and three other members of South London Crew. It was small, but that was all she needed. She didn’t need an army to kill someone, she just needed people to be on lookout while she did the crime.

“If you’re wondering where David is, he’s not here.”

The voice made everyone jump a little, not realising that someone was behind them and listening into their conversation.

Adelaide turned around to see Shadowman standing there, hood over his head and looking more like just a floating face than an actual person. Sighing a little, she placed her hands on her hips. “How’d you know that?”

Shadowman shrugged his shoulders, placing his hood down and moving towards the group. “David retreated back to the palace, I saw a small party leave the hotel earlier and David was with them, they all looked pretty scared.”

Adelaide nodded once before turning back towards the group, her back towards Shadowman. “Thank you for that information, you can leave now.”

"I’m not doing shit, I'm going with you."

"Listen, Dark-Boy, I don't need more people to slow me down."

"First; it's **_Shadowman_** and second; without me, you'd be caught within fifteen seconds."

Adelaide rolled her eyes, sighing once more. "Fine, but if you slow me down or do anything to piss me off, I will not hesitate in killing you."

"Understood, Commander."

Adelaide nodded towards Shadowman before turning back to the rest of the team. “Okay, so this is how it’s gonna go; this is not an extermination mission. This is an assassination. We go in quietly, kill only our target and get out. The only time we kill someone who is not our target is if they fight first, understood?”

The group nodded in unison, Adelaide looking around the group once before speaking up again. “Okay, get your stuff together, let’s move out.”

Once again, the group nodded before doing their final checks on their weapons. Just as Adelaide was about to pick up her sword, Shadowman pulled her aside, keeping an eye out for anyone that might be listening.

“I come with you on one condition; you save Jester. Whatever happens tonight, he needs to be kept alive. I don’t care how many people you have to kill; you have to save him.”

Adelaide couldn’t see much of his face, it was mostly covered by the darkness but the urgency in his voice convinced her that she needed to make this deal. It was obvious that Shadow **_loved_** Jester, that was the only way to describe it. Like how she was in love with DogNut and DogNut was in love with her; they’d make deals with the Devil to protect each other.

Well, Adelaide wasn’t quite the Devil but she was as close to it.

Nodding her head, she licked her lips. “Deal.” She left Shadowman behind her and placed her knives in her belt before she picked up her sword and attached it around her body. “Let’s kill the king.” Adelaide placed her hood over her head and the mask over her face, leaving only her eyes visible. The group watched Adelaide for a moment before they grabbed their weapons before making their way out of the camp and into the darkness, towards Buckingham Palace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally going to include the actual assassination but I decided to split up the two chapters because it would’ve gotten way too long and I’m a little behind schedule with updating anyways since I’m trying to update once a week.
> 
> The next chapter should be up soon; I’ve already gotten about 700 words on it at the time of writing this so hopefully, it’ll be up soon.


	26. Chapter 26

The group stood in front of the dark Buckingham Palace, only illuminated by the few torches that surrounded it. Admittedly, Adelaide was a little nervous about what she was going to do. But she knew that she had to do it and it was far too late to back out now.

Pushing aside her anxiety, she turned towards her group. “Edison, I need you to focus. Eyes and ears need to be kept in front of you in case someone tries to kill us. You’ll be my ears, if you hear something, you need to tell me.”

Edison nodded. “Understood, Commander.”

“Harper, I need you to be my eyes. As soon as you see things going south, give me the signal to abort.”

Harper nodded.

“Shadow, I need you to be my guide and first line of defence.”

Shadowman frowned, his eyebrows creasing together in confusion as he looked at Adelaide. “Why would I need to do that?”

Adelaide sighed, her eyes narrowing a little. “It’s common curtesy, Dylan. You want Jester? You’ll have to protect me, that’s just how this whole game works. You don’t have to be the ride or die type like everyone else, but you do have to protect me no matter what.”

“Alright, princess, I’ll protect you.”

“Do not call me that,” Adelaide hissed, pushing past Shadowman and walked towards the back door, leaning against the wall beside the door before she began fiddling with the handle quietly to distract herself as she gave out the remainder of her orders to the other group members.

Shadowman looked around the group in confusion, his hands raising in defence. “What did I do?”

Harper bit her bottom lip as she looked at Adelaide for a moment before turning to Shadowman. “DogNut used to call her princess – he died saving her life three months ago; his death was the reason why she left North London and returned to the south. It’s a sensitive subject for everyone, we don’t tend to talk about it.”

“We’ve all lost someone, why would she get special treatment?”

Harper sighed. “I’m going to be beheaded for this,” she muttered quietly to herself before she placed a hand by the side of her mouth and whispered something into Shadowman’s ear.

Shadowman’s face dropped as soon as he heard what Harper told him, all the colour drained from his face. He knew Adelaide’s big secret and now he had to take it to the grave or god forbid Adelaide would have his head.

Rather literally in her case.

Before Shadowman could say anything, the back door was opened and Adelaide moved in silently, her sword drawn. Shadowman walked swiftly to catch up to Adelaide and direct her around the dark room. Thankfully for the group, Shadowman knew the palace like the back of his hand; even in the dark, he knew exactly where he was going.

Directing the group through the dark and silent rooms, they ended up in one of the many corridors. Adelaide and Shadowman were at the front, while Harper and Edison were slightly further back.

“I know your secret,” Shadowman half-whispered, breaking the silence between him and Adelaide.

“Huh?” Adelaide frowned, twirling the handle of her sword in her hand as she looked at Shadowman for a moment before turning back to the corridor in front of them.

“The real reason you have so many guards around you at all times… it’s not just because you’re the commander.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about; it’s their job to protect me, I just choose to have more than two guards sometimes.”

“I think you do. Harper told me **_everything_**.”

Adelaide froze, her grip on her sword tightening before she held her sword against Shadowman’s throat and pushed him against the wall, the fear evident in her eyes. “Now that you know the truth; you cannot tell anyone. **_Please_**. I’ll be taken out of the fight and I can’t let that happen.”

Shadowman shook his head, his hands raising in surrender. “I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”

Adelaide looked at him for a moment before lowering her sword and disappearing down the corridor, turning a corner and she was completely out of sight. Although, it wasn’t hard to lose sight of her; she was wearing all black in an almost pitch-black corridor with very little light.

The group raced after Adelaide, not having too much trouble finding her as she hadn’t gone that far away from them. The group moved through the palace in silence, nobody daring to speak and the only sounds between them were Shadowman’s mutters of directions and their heavy boots on the carpeted floor.

“How much further?” Adelaide asked, breaking the silence.

“Not much, we keep going down here then turn left and we’re basically at the prick’s bedroom.” Shadowman answered, pointing down the hall.

Adelaide nodded, halting the group by raising her fist. “Wait here, all of you. Give me ten minutes; if I’m not back in ten minutes, I want you all to abort the mission and leave. Do not wait for me, do you understand?”

The group nodded in unison and watched as Adelaide disappeared down the hallway and turned the corner, completely out of sight of the rest of the group.

Walking down the dark hallway, Adelaide’s eyes fixed on the door at the end of it; David’s room. But she came to a stop once one of the doors opened to reveal the one person she was supposed to save during this entire operation; Jester. Her eyes widened as she gripped her sword and froze, unsure of what she was supposed to do.

**_Please don’t notice me, please don’t notice me, please don’t-_ **

Jester’s almost girl-like scream proved that she has been seen and the game was up. Well, until Jester fell to his knees, shaking and crying as he backed away from Adelaide and sat against the wall.

Walking slowly towards him; Adelaide crouched down in front of Jester’s shaking and blubbering form, her head cocking to one side as she studied him. She was tempted to kill him but she had a deal with Shadow and she wasn’t going to break it, that wasn’t who she was. Plus, Shadow would’ve probably killed her for killing Jester – kind of using her own motto against her.

“Please… please don’t kill me...” Jester sobbed, his eyes closing as he waited for death to come. Only it never came. Once the death blow never came, he slowly opened his eyes to see Adelaide right in front of him.

Adelaide almost laughed as she shook her head, placing her sword back into its holder before she moved her mask away from her face. “Calm down, sweetheart. I’m not here to kill you, you’re the lucky one here; Shadow and I made a deal to spare your life.”

Jester looked at her confused, tears still in his eyes as he did. “Then why are you here?”

Adelaide shrugged, standing up again. “I’m here to kill your king and take his crown, and there’s nothing you or anyone can do to stop me.”

Jester slowly nodded, sniffing and wiping away his tears, not saying anything.

Adelaide licked her lips, adjusting the strap on her sword. “Lover boy’s here, by the way.”

Jester’s head jerked upwards towards Adelaide, slowly standing up. “Shadow’s here?” he whispered, almost in shock.

Adelaide nodded, turning around to go back down the hallway towards the group, Jester following close behind her. She stopped at the turning, nodding towards Shadowman and took a step back.

She watched as Jester sprinted down the hallway towards Shadowman, who in turn ran towards Jester. They collided, enfolded, lost their balance, and slammed against a wall, where they stayed. Clinging to each other as if their lives depended upon it.

Watching them, she felt her heart sink a little inside her chest, remembering how she was with DogNut before he died. She liked to think that it was something like that but they didn’t have enough time together to truly figure out what kind of couple they were.

Adelaide turned back towards the door, trying to force all thoughts of DogNut out of her mind. Now was not the time to be thinking about lost loves; she had a job to do and she was going to complete it.

 ** _Time to kill the king_**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me so long to put up and the fact that most of it is a mess, I tried. And I know the assassination isn’t in this chapter; but it will be in the next one – I promise. It’s coming, I swear.
> 
> I added in some Shagic because I fucking love them and I have no regrets to say that I ship it like FedEx.


	27. Chapter 27

Removing her sword, Adelaide quietly and carefully placed it down against the wall beside the door and quietly walked into David’s room, closing the door behind her. The curtains were left wide open, allowing moonlight to illuminate the room with a bright silver tint – how David was able to sleep like that was beyond her comprehension but that wasn’t important.

Adelaide slowly removed her hood as she walked slowly and purposely towards David’s bed, her eyes locked onto his sleeping form. She hoped for his sake that he was still asleep – or perhaps she wanted him to be awake when she killed him, she wanted the satisfaction of watching the life leave his eyes. Knowing that she had won.

Grabbing a knife from her belt, she gripped it in her hand until her knuckles went white and she began to feel a slight cramp in her fist. She loosened her grip a little but it was still tighter than it probably needed to be.

Climbing on top of David’s bed, Adelaide couldn’t help but smirk a little to herself as she hovered over David's stomach, her legs on either side of his body, stopping him from being able to move.

David was wide awake and panicking but he couldn’t scream because Adelaide’s hand was over his mouth as she shook her head slowly, the knife raising a little so he could see it. "Long live the queen," she whispered into his ear before sticking her knife into his heart.

Blood splattered across Adelaide’s face and her hands as well as the wall and on the bed as she kept plunging the knife into David’s chest, watching the life leave his eyes. She almost laughed, knowing how easy it was to kill the false king – if only she’d done it sooner. She should’ve killed him as soon as she first laid eyes on him.

Adelaide cocked her head to one side as she looked at David's lifeless body beneath her, her fingers grazing over his face as she studied him closely. Shaking her head to herself, she removed her knife from his heart and used her index and middle fingers on both hands to cover her face with his blood. She then cut off his head and left his room, carrying his head in her hand.

Picking up her sword, Adelaide made her way back to the group, her walking was slow and her steps were heavy. She felt tears begin to form in her eyes but she quickly forced them back as she faced the group. “It’s done, let’s go.” She announced the group before continuing walking down the hall, her grip on David’s severed head tightening a little.

The group followed behind her, Shadowman catching up to walk beside Adelaide. "Did that make you feel better?" he asked, looking over at Adelaide.

Adelaide shook her head quickly, her voice barely a whisper. "No."

"Killing him wouldn't have brought Clara or DogNut back, y'know."

"I know, but he needed to pay for what he did." She paused for a moment to compose herself before she spoke up again. “And besides; Revenge is not meant to ease the pain; it is meant to balance the scales.”

The group continued through the palace in silence after that, making their way back through the back door where they had entered. The group separated, half of the group going towards the wall to guard while the other half stayed back to decide which route they should take home.

After looking over the map and listened in to a suggested route by Shadowman, Adelaide looked up towards Edison and frowned. She excused herself and walked towards Edison, her eyes narrowing as he watched her talk to a short, dark haired girl. “Edison, you’re supposed to be on duty, you can’t talk to anyone. Plus, she isn’t one of us.”

Edison nodded his head, his dark eyes falling to the floor as his face dropped. “Sorry, Commander. It won’t happen again.”

Adelaide’s eyes narrowed a little as she glared at him. “It better not, now, we’ve got a long trip home.”

She watched Edison nod once more before walking off, then her attention turned to the girl in front of her who seemed to be studying her closely. “Do I know you?” she asked, her American accent thick and distinct, making her stick out like a sore thumb.

Adelaide frowned a little as she shook her head. “No? This isn’t our territory anyway, it’s yours. Well, yours for now.”

The girl frowned, confused at Adelaide’s words. “For now? What do you mean?”

Adelaide smirked as she held up David’s head, causing the girl to scream bloody murder, Adelaide almost screeching with laughter as she waved the head around like it was a football before her smile dropped and she became completely emotionless within the blink of an eye.

She turned back to her group. “Time to go.”

**_~#~_ **

By the time the group returned to the main camp, it was fairly obvious that they had been gone a while. And they couldn’t exactly blend in as easily any longer; Adelaide was covered in blood and Shadowman had a small puppy-like boy clinging to him. It was obvious that they’d have a lot of explaining to do, but nobody was really willing to do it.

Noticing the group, most of the older kids – the ones who were still awake – all stood up and looked towards Adelaide’s group. From behind them, South London Crew began to appear to support their leader. Nobody said a word, waiting for someone to speak up, only nobody did.

 ** _Here goes nothing_**.

Adelaide held up David's head. "The king is dead, long live the queen!" She announced to everyone in front of her. While Adelaide's people applauded and cheered while most people remained silent, in complete shock that Adelaide had willingly beheaded a kid. Shooting one in the head is another thing, but purposely decapitating one and waving their head around like a trophy was another thing entirely.

Especially since nobody saw it coming or was prepared for it.

The kids in the camp knew their lives had changed forever; the reign of the false king was over, and the reign of the savages had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The king is dead – LONG LIVE QUEEN ADELAIDE.
> 
> I’ve also posted a new one-shot called In Your Head if you guys want to read it, it’s up on my profile. It’s to go with my other one-shot Without Each Other so it’s kind of sad.


	28. Chapter 28

It had been two days since Adelaide had killed David and anarchy had reigned over the camp. The leaders of the other groups wanted South London Crew out but Jordan didn’t want it to happen due to their numbers and ability to fight but the only thing South London Crew seemed to do for the last two days was get drunk and celebrate that now Adelaide was somewhat in charge now.

Admittedly, Adelaide had been drinking more than she should’ve as she walked through the camp – although she was more stumbling by that point. She was giggling and laughing her way through the camp until she felt a sharp pain shoot through her lower stomach.

Cringing from the pain, she grabbed her stomach. Her breathing became laboured as tears began to fill her eyes. She looked down at her hands. They were stained a crimson red with blood.

**_It's dying... my baby's dying._ **

Adelaide had known she was pregnant for a while now but had kept it a secret out of fear that she would've had to leave her duties as commander. She had to keep fighting, she had to do it for DogNut and herself and now their unborn child.

She fell to her knees, her sight becoming blurred. She wanted to scream and cry but she didn’t want to let anyone see how much pain she was truly in. Slowly crawling across the camp, she noticed her second coming towards her. "Hannah! **_HANNAH_**! GET JORDAN!"

Adelaide watched Hannah nod her head before sprinting away to get Jordan, and then Adelaide blacked out before anything else could’ve been done.

When Adelaide opened her eyes, she could tell that something was different. For one, she was in her tent and resting on her bed. And two, she knew that she wasn’t exactly **_awake_**. She didn’t know how she knew, she just did.

Sliding off her bed, she saw DogNut in the corner of the tent and she felt her heart swell inside her chest. She almost ran towards him with tears in her eyes until she stood before him, hesitant to touch him. Adelaide held DogNut's face in her hands, her fingers tracing his cheeks as her forehead rested against his. He was here, after so long. He’d come back to her. Almost on the verge of tears, Adelaide grasped onto DogNut as tightly as she possibly could, not willing to let him go at any costs – she’d been without him for far too long.

"Come back to me, please come back. I can't do this without you," she whispered, trying to not let her tears fall.

DogNut wrapped his arms tightly around Adelaide, his chin resting on top of Adelaide’s head. "I never left you, Addie."

Adelaide shook her head, separating from DogNut. “You did! You had to die on me when I needed you the most,” she shook her head, allowing a tear to fall down her cheek. “I could’ve saved you… if I’d been a little faster and stayed by your side, I could’ve saved you.”

DogNut shook his head, pressing a kiss to Adelaide’s forehead. “Stop blaming yourself, this wasn’t your fault.”

Adelaide closed her eyes, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. “That’s not the worst of it; You were gonna be a dad-"

“There wasn’t someone else? Before or after me?”

Adelaide shook her head, her voice shaking. “No. There was no-one else, there was only you.”

She decided to leave Clara and Hayley out of the conversation – she didn’t want to waste her time with DogNut by arguing about other relationships. She didn’t know how much time she would have with him and she wanted to cherish every second.

“So, that little being growing in your stomach is **_my_** son?”

“Or daughter… but yes, it’s yours.”

DogNut looked as if he was almost about to cry as his hand found its way to her stomach, he slowly kneeled down and smiled softly. “Listen, kiddo, it’s your daddy here. Don’t be too harsh on your mother – she’ll have it hard enough dealing with sickos and have to keep you safe too so take it easy on her. When you’re old enough, look after her for me. She might not appreciate it now but one day, she might do. I just learned of your existence, but I already love you and I wish I could meet you, but shit happens.”

Adelaide playfully hit DogNut’s arm. “No swearing in front of the baby, do you want our kid’s first words to be a swear word?”

DogNut raised his eyebrow at Adelaide, standing up straight. “You should watch what you say, too, princess. You swear like a sailor.”

Adelaide shrugged her shoulders, pressing a gentle kiss to DogNut’s lips. “True, but I’m not as bad as someone else I know.”

“Just one of the many things I love about you.”

Adelaide rested her forehead against DogNut’s, her eyes closing as she tightly embraced him. She felt DogNut slowly slip away from him, but she strangely didn’t react and let him go; it wasn’t a goodbye on her part, it was a ‘I’ll see you soon’ type gesture. “I’ll see you when I fall asleep, Jacob,” she heard herself whisper but she wasn’t sure if she actually said it or simply said it inside her head.

But that didn’t stop her from crying when her eyes finally opened, and she was back in reality once more. A DogNut-less reality, though. And even if his memory continued to live on in their child and through the people he met, it still didn’t change the fact that she would miss him until the day she died – that was one thing that wasn’t going to change any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DogNut returns! Sorry this is so short and kind of a filler chapter but I kind of want to get these short chapters out of the way, so we can get into the final battle soon and then we can wrap up the story and I can move onto other projects because as much as I love writing Beautiful Crime; I do want to finish it and write other stories.


	29. Chapter 29

Back in reality, Adelaide slowly sat up and found herself surrounded by a medic and Hannah who was by her side, her hand over hers. She looked down at her hand for a moment before she slowly slid her hand out of hers, turning towards the medic. “Is the baby okay? Please, just tell me if my baby’s okay.”

The medic placed a hand gently on Adelaide’s shoulder, trying to calm her down. There was a large scar running down her face, going from the left side of her forehead to her jaw on the right side of her face. She wasn’t much but she was the best South London could offer. “Adelaide, relax. Your baby’s fine, you were under a lot of stress from doing… well, you know what. And the drinking wasn’t helping.”

Adelaide sighed as she laid back down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She was relieved to know that her child was okay, but she was also angry at herself for her stupidity, knowing that she could’ve been the cause of the death of her own child.

Jordan came into her tent then, causing Adelaide to sit back up. "Leave us," Adelaide instructed to Hannah and the medic, her eyes focused on Jordan's. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hannah leave the tent as she was told but the medic stayed where she was.

"But Adelaide-" the medic protested, her eyes widening a little.

"I SAID LEAVE US!" Adelaide barked, her face distorting into a look of pure rage for a moment before it was replaced with a faint smile within the blink of an eye.

The medic took one look between Adelaide and Jordan before she reluctantly nodded once and left the tent, leaving the pair alone. Adelaide slowly and shakily stood up, resting her hand on her chair to level herself. Jordan almost rushed to her side, placing a hand around her waist and a hand on her arm to steady her.

“I thought I’d lost you for good back there,” Jordan almost whispered, his eyes going over Adelaide face, taking in every small detail of her face from what he could see through his fading vision.

Adelaide shook her head, licking her lips. “I’m fine, just had a little hiccup.”

Jordan moved a hand to Adelaide’s cheek. "Listen, Addie, I know I'm not him and I will never try to be him, but I promise you that I'll fight for you and your baby until my heart stops beating."

Adelaide said nothing as she held onto Jordan's hand tightly, looking between Jordan's eyes and his lips, slowly leaning into him until their lips were just about to touch.

Adelaide’s heart was hammering inside her chest, feeling her hands shaking a little – she was actually **_nervous_**. Something she hadn’t felt since DogNut. She felt the butterflies in her stomach and they were hurting her a little, but it was kind of a good hurt.

Just as their lips were about to connect, the tent opening was almost forced open and Jackson, Achilleus, Ryan and Harper came in, causing Adelaide and Jordan to take a step away from each other, pretending like what was about to happen was nothing.

Jordan helped Adelaide to her throne and stood beside it, a hand resting on the back of it. Adelaide almost looked annoyed as she looked at the group, almost painfully placing her leg over the other. “Is there a reason why you came in unannounced?”

Harper took a step forward, her face a little pale. “I’m sorry, commander, but something’s happened to Esme…”

Adelaide froze, the grip on her throne tightening. "What happened to Esme?"

Jackson said nothing as she slowly stepped towards Adelaide, holding out the palm of her hand to Adelaide – a ring placed in the middle of it. Adelaide took Esme's promise ring from Jackson's dirty palm and gripped it in her hand, silently understanding what had happened without anyone saying.

She didn’t cry, no matter how much her heart was breaking inside her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut as she clenched her fist. “No more,” she muttered, her eyes opening quickly. “This ends today; South London Crew officially declares war against the revenant. Tell the troops the party’s over, this is some serious shit.”

**_~#~_ **

An hour later, the camp was in full war mode with not a single trace of alcohol in sight – the group deciding to keep the alcohol for both the victory party and for some Molotov’s. Adelaide was still sat on her throne, but Jordan had returned to his side of the camp to prepare his own troops, leaving Adelaide to sort out her army on her own – not that she really minded.

“A ‘Dylan’ wants to speak to you, he’s outside.” Harper told Adelaide, nodding her head towards the entrance of the tent.

“Send him in,” Adelaide sat up straight in her throne and Shadowman came into her tent, obviously distressed. “Harper, get everyone ready,” she nodded towards the blonde before she left the tent to give the pair some privacy.

Shadowman looked like he was almost about to cry, he kneeled down in front of Adelaide’s throne, almost looking like he was bowing down to her. “Addie, please tell me you’ll protect Jester.”

Adelaide grasped Shadowman’s hand tightly, trying to calm him down. “Dylan, calm down. Jester will be under the protection of my personal guards; they won’t let anyone or anything come close to him. I will make sure that nothing happens to him, do you understand?”

Shadowman nodded, his breathing still a little heavy. “Thank you, Addie.”

Adelaide nodded as she licked her lips, looking behind Shadowman for a moment before turning her attention back to him. “Help me up,” she told him as she placed her weight on the arms of her chair and tried to get up.

Shadowman rushed to his feet to help Adelaide to her feet. “What are you planning on doing?”

Adelaide shrugged her shoulders as the pair walked slowly out of the tent and into the daylight. “I need to talk to everyone, there’s something I want to say.”

A small group of kids crowded around a small table, waiting for an announcement – one that would be made by Adelaide. With Shadowman’s help, Adelaide slowly climbed on top of the table and walked out in front of the crowd of kids, her demeanour calm and collected despite screaming on the inside. The crowd fell silent as they all stopped and stared at her. Licking her lips, Adelaide began speaking. “What happened here and across the country will not stand; the revenant will fall – the dead will be avenged!”

The crowd cheered and began chanting various things, their voices drowning out each other, making the voices just a wall of noise.

At the back of the crowd, Kyle and Sophie stood watching the crowd dissolve into pandemonium.

“I’m sorry, but who is she again?” Sophie asked, her eyes narrowing as she gripped her bow and arrow.

Kyle moved his head closer to Sophie’s ear, so he could be heard over the shouts and screams of the kids. “Adelaide; the Commander of South London Crew. You thought Josa and Tyler and them lot were bad – that was child’s play. In South London’s case, you’re dealing with all experienced killers.”

Adelaide looked at the pandemonium before her, the pain in her legs slowly lessening. She felt someone stand on the table beside her and whisper something in her ear. “It’s time,” they whispered – it was Jordan. “I want you in your tent where you’ll be safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The battle is finally upon us! Stay tuned for that, dear readers! Sorry for the late update, I’ve started school for eight weeks and I’m three weeks into it, so I probably won’t update properly until around Christmas. But I am determined to finish this story before the end of the year! Thankfully for you guys, I’ve written most of the next few chapters, so they should be out soon.


	30. Chapter 30

Adelaide paced around her tent, listening to the battle being fought outside. She wanted to fight – she wanted to avenge her friends and her family, but she knew that if she pushed herself too far, it might cause her to miscarriage. Sighing, she sat down on her bed and looked down at her stomach, a hand over it. "Listen, baby. Mummy needs to do this, daddy would've wanted this. So, just don't make me puke or pass out and then when we're done here, I'll stop fighting... for a week."

She didn’t wait for an answer – not that she’d actually get one – before she walked over towards her pile of clothes with her weapons by the side of them. She brought out her jacket and stared at it in her hands, her fingers brushing over the leather material.

Placing her leather jacket down, Adelaide picked up a small pencil case with her war paint inside. Bringing out her war paint, Adelaide took one last look at herself in the small and broken mirror on the floor beside her knees before she began coating her face in the black make-up.

**_~#~_ **

On the battlefield, the battle was in full swing. Sickos and kids alike were being taken down in the most brutal ways; blood, weapons and body parts littering the ground beneath their feet. The sound of screaming and metal hitting against metal and skin rang out throughout the otherwise quiet streets of London, giving the entire town an idea of what was going down.

Ed was fully invested in the fight, solely focused on the next sicko in front of him – it almost became like a game to him. Once he’d take down one enemy, another would appear, and he would take them down, too. Just like one of the many video games he used to play before the world went to shit.

Just as Ed was about to dig his sword into the sicko in front of him, two knives were shoved into both sides of the mother's head and she instantly collapsed to the floor. Ed looked up to see Adelaide who looked like she'd seen better days and like she'd already lived through forty battles already. She wasn't wearing a jacket or anything to hide her arms and the extent of her scars almost made Ed want to puke. Scars littered Adelaide's forearms stretching from her elbows to her wrists, some were fresh while others were old and had begun to fade a little.

Ed had heard the stories about South London warriors cutting themselves to distract themselves from pain, but he didn't realise that it was so severe, nor that Adelaide was also required to do it.

Noticing that Ed hadn't said a word, Adelaide spoke up. "I know, you had it sorted."

It took a while for Ed to fully register what was happening and for him to speak. "I thought Jordan told you to stay behind? The stress isn't healthy for the baby, and you’d be safer that way."

Adelaide shook her head, a small piece of her hair falling out of her braids and rested in front of her face. "The baby is the child of a commander and a knight, it's fine. We had a chat and made a deal. **_He_** wouldn't have backed down from a fight, and neither would I."

Ed nodded his head, knowing that he couldn’t fight against Adelaide, especially in this situation. The pair looked at each other and brought their weapons back up to continue fighting, Ed having Adelaide’s back the entire time, making sure that she was okay and not pushing herself too far with her fighting.

After taking down an ugly father, Adelaide looked ahead of her to see a mother just ahead of her, coming towards her with a slightly rusted and blood-soaked knife in her hand. Looking at her, Adelaide almost immediately knew who she was – she was there when DogNut died. She was the one who did it.

Feeling the anger rise within her, Adelaide turned towards Ed beside her. “You carry on here, this one’s mine.” She shouted towards Ed before she stormed across the battlefield, feeling everything move in slow motion but moving far too fast at the same time.

Adelaide felt hot tears fall down her cheeks as she moved across the battlefield, as if she and the mother were the only ones there. The sunglasses the mother wore obscured her eyes from Adelaide but somehow, she could tell the mother’s eyes were on hers, watching and waiting for her.

**_It’s now or never._ **

Stopping several feet in front of the mother, Adelaide took a deep breath to steady her rapidly beating heart. The mother took several strides towards her, the knife in her hands almost pointing towards Adelaide.

The pair stared at each other for several moments; the mother trying to intimidate Adelaide while Adelaide stood her ground, she’d been through too much shit over the past year to be intimidated by a sicko by now. She was the Commander of Death, after all – almost nothing scared her anymore. It was a stand-off; the first person who moves, loses.

Eventually, the mother shrieked an ear-piercing scream that made Adelaide’s ears hurt a little and charged towards Adelaide with alarming speed. Adelaide brought her sword up and braced herself for impact and the mother delivered a hard one.

Adelaide kept trying to get the knife out of the mother’s hand, but the mother always saw her attacks before she made them – proving that the mother was a hell of a lot smarter than any of the other grown-ups.

The pair fought for control for what seemed like hours until Adelaide finally gained control and cut off the mother’s arms before kicking her to the ground before climbing on top of her and pressing her thumbs into the mother’s eye sockets and pressing down hard, the struggling of the mother finally coming to a stop as blood and puss covered Adelaide’s hands and wrists.

**_It’s over. It’s finally over._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter to go until the epilogue! I personally don’t like the way this chapter ended up being, but hey, it’s something.


	31. Chapter 31

The battle was over almost as soon as Ed had killed St. George, that was when the kids knew they had won. Wiping the blood on her shirt, Adelaide slowly made her way through the wreckage of what was left after the battle; bodies of both kids and grown-ups alike littered the ground, causing Adelaide to have to step over some of them.

Walking back towards Jordan’s camp, Adelaide placed her sword back in its sheath and noticed Ed, giving him a gentle smile. “You did good, cap,” she said once she was in front of him.

Ed smiled and shook his head, brushing off Adelaide’s comment. “Adelaide, thank you.”

Adelaide frowned, her eyebrow raising a little. “For what?”

“For saving me on the battlefield… and I’m sorry for what I said. You’re not the savage I thought you were; you’re still you, and I’m sure DogNut would be proud of you.”

Adelaide nodded, her eyes filling with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. “I’m sure Jack would be proud of you too, Ed.”

“Listen, if you want to, you can stay… in North London, I mean.”

Adelaide shook her head, smiling a little to herself as her tears almost completely faded. “Nah, you don’t need me. You do just fine without me, Edward Carter.”

“How’d you know my full name?”

“Seriously? You’re asking me this **_now_**? Dude, our brothers were best friends… although, I’m pretty sure they were dating. Whatever, I knew about you, just couldn’t be bothered to meet you. Plus, you were always away at school and I was either at school or at the rink so there wasn’t really a good time. I never saw your face, so this whole time I never really figured that you were him, y’know?”

“Wait a second, Seb’s **_your_** older brother?”

“Yup, Sebastian Milton – the most annoying brother and human being to ever walk the planet.”

“It’s funny you say that, Seb was a pretty cool guy. He’d play football with me and my friends sometimes.”

“And you didn’t take the opportunity to murder him? I’m not mad, Carter, just disappointed.”

“Not my fault, Milton. Didn’t know that was my mission… anyway, he talked about you a lot. Pretty sure one of my friends had a crush on you.”

The pair laughed at that, Adelaide shaking her head a little to herself. It felt strange to talk about their lives before the sickness – it felt like a completely different existence, back when everything was easy, and everyone were normal and didn’t have to fight wars.

Admittedly, Adelaide hadn’t talked about her brother to anyone in over a year; not even Hayley or Clara knew he even existed. She wasn’t embarrassed by him or anything, she just didn’t want to talk about how her beloved older brother died right in front of her.

Adelaide looked down at her tattoo, her thumb running over every individual letter as she smiled a little to herself.

"What happens now?" Ed asked after a few moments of silence between the pair, turning his attention to her face before looking down at her tattoo.

Adelaide shook her head, bringing her head back up to face forward. "I don't know... I guess we rebuild.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and looked at Ed.

Ed was about to answer her when Kyle whispered something in his ear, inaudible to Adelaide, causing him to nod and look towards Adelaide. “Sorry, I have to-”

“You don’t need to be sorry, Carter. You’re their leader – you go save the world again, you know where to find me. Just shout, and I’ll be there.” Adelaide waved her hand and turned away from the pair, back towards her own group who were packing up their belongings.

The only member of the group who wasn’t packing up was Harper, causing Adelaide to frown a little as she walked towards her. “Harper? It’s time to go home.”

Harper shook her head slowly, her eyes glassy and it was clear that she was trying hard not to cry. “I… er… I’m not going back.”

“You’re staying?”

Harper nodded, brushing a piece of hair away from her face. “Please don’t be angry at me, Adelaide.”

Adelaide didn’t say anything as she hugged Harper tightly. Harper froze for a moment, not quite sure how to react to Adelaide’s hug since nobody ever received a hug from Adelaide and if they did, it was rare. “South London will **_always_** be your home, Harper. I know I’m hard on you, but I want you to know that out of all the warriors, you were by far the most promising. If I could, I would’ve made you my second.”

Harper hugged Adelaide back tightly, gripping her commander’s shirt as tightly as she could as she forced back her tears, but a few fell down her cheeks, and she quickly brushed them away with the back of her hand.

Coming out of the hug, Adelaide gave a small smile. “Go on, the world won’t wait forever.”

Harper nodded again, picking up her crossbow and her backpack before setting off in the direction of the Houses of Parliament – the one place Adelaide secretly knew where she would go.

Adelaide walked through her camp and towards Jordan’s part of the camp, she needed to say her goodbye before she returned to the south for the last time. She’d made a promise to herself that after the war was over, she would return to the south and she wouldn’t come back – there was nothing for her, but everything changed as soon as she came back.

She found Jordan outside his tent, almost waiting for her. Adelaide looked over at Jordan for a moment, unsure of what to say before pressing her lips to his for the briefest moments and thrusting something into his hands, releasing him from her grasp and moving away from him mere seconds later. Jordan watched the back of Adelaide for a moment before looking down at his hands.

**_Glasses._ **

She'd found him the glasses he'd wanted all those months ago, although they might not be what he needed but she got them anyway.

Adelaide may have become the queen of South London and a commander of death; but she still had the heart of a loving girl. Through everything she had been through; losing her family, the love of her life and having everyone she knew abandon her – she still had the heart of a girl who was so innocent to the world. And that was why Jordan liked her so much, but he'd never tell her that. He would only say he respected her, nothing more and nothing less.

What would happen next would be up to them; they were in control of their lives for the first time in over a year. They were free to do whatever they wished, and Jordan wasn't going to waste any time in that freedom by doing nothing.

"Hey, Adelaide, wait up!"

**_~#~_ **

Back in South London; the entire camp was celebrating their victory over the revenant – their commander had come back alive and victorious. A large bonfire had been lit in the centre of their camp and everyone was invited to join in the festivities and celebrations of London being free from the dead.

Adelaide laughed as she watched people dance around the large bonfire, clapping along to the music. Their music wasn’t like the ones they had at the Natural History Museum or any other place in London for that matter, it was far more tribal. A deafening blend of drums, woodwind instruments and various other instruments they had either made themselves or what they salvaged from the burned ruins of their home. Since they had no real access to electricity, they had to make their own version of music.

"May I have this dance?" Jordan asked as he held his hand out to Adelaide. She looked at his hand for a moment before taking it and standing up. The pair smiled as Jordan’s arm rested around her waist, pulling her closer to him as they walked through the crowd of people around the pair.

The pair danced together – a little clunky and not in time but they were having fun the whole time, and that’s all that really mattered.

South London Crew’s music, laughter and sounds of broken glasses echoed throughout the dark and empty streets of London, even reaching The Tower, just proving that the savages definitely threw the best parties. One thought went through the Tower Kids’ minds as they watched the dark sky shine a bright orange from the large bonfire; They surely knew how to party.

 

 

**_ END OF PART THREE... _ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story isn’t quite over yet, lovelies! We’ve still got the epilogue to go! I hope you enjoyed the little scenes between Adelaide and Ed; I kind of wanted Adelaide to have a connection between Ed because they’re so similar in many ways.  
> They both had older brothers who died from infection, both had to become leaders without wanting to be and both of them have done things that they both regret.


	32. Chapter 32

**_TEN YEARS LATER…_ **

 

It had been ten years since the last battle against the grown-ups and the kids had been victorious. In those ten years, North and South London united and agreed to help each other, setting aside their old rivalry. With Nicola’s help, Ed and Brooke moved into power and ruled over North London while Adelaide and Jordan ruled over South London. But their union wasn’t an easy one; tension and the differences between the two sides were still clear, even after fighting side by side in the final war. South London Crew were still hesitant to allow an alliance, and it took almost a year and a half for them to even find peace and find a place to talk like rational people.

A few months after the war, Adelaide had given birth to a healthy baby boy she named Jordan Jacob after the man who’d saved her life and his father, just to help keep DogNut’s memory alive. She’d also given birth to a baby girl she named Esme several months beforehand (named after the original Esme, of course), and she had yet another baby on the way; a happy little family.

Warm sunlight shone down on the field, the sound of children's laughter filled the air, almost drowning out the sounds of insects buzzing around. In this world; there are no more sickos, no more bad people, no more surviving – just living. Perhaps one day Adelaide would tell her children about the world that came before this, how dark the world was before they were born. Her children know nothing about the sickos or David or anything their parents did to survive. They don't know their playground is also a graveyard, soaked in the blood of those that died so that they could live. Perhaps one day they would understand what happened before they were born, but for now all they cared about was spinning as fast as possible and having cuddles from their parents, normal for children their age. Adelaide knew that in a few years, they would start to ask about the world their parents had lived through.

**_But, how can I tell them about that world without frightening them to death?_ **

Adelaide was brought out of her moments of thinking by her son playing with some of the tools her guards had used to clear a path to her home, despite being told not to touch them multiple times by both her and the guards themselves. “Jordan, honey, be careful with those! Mummy doesn’t want you to hurt yourself!”

Jordan huffed loudly, throwing down the tools dramatically and stormed off to the other side of the field to play with some of the other children, causing Adelaide to chuckle a little to herself as she watched her son. Every day, Jordan reminded Adelaide more and more of his father; they had the same dark hair and bright eyes, quick temper and their undying desire to protect their family no matter what that seemed to be imprinted inside of him since birth – or since conception as Harper had once joked.

Perhaps he’d inherited the desire to protect their family from his mother since she was known to be one of the most over protective parents in the city but then again, most people were. Even Edison was more protective than Adelaide was over his daughter, but it was to be almost expected by now. Even after the sickos had been defeated, that fear had been ingrained in every kid’s memory and it was unlikely that it would ever really go away. There was always that sense of fear that the sickness would come back and once again, they would be thrown into a war zone.

Adelaide kept a close eye on Jordan and the other children while also trying to sew up a hole in one of Jordan’s shorts. Sewing was never Adelaide's strongest points, and she did manage to prick herself many times through the shorts and to her exposed thigh. She regretted deciding to wear a dress when she did that but she liked wearing dresses; to her, it meant that she didn't need to go out and kill sickos, she could be a mother without having to protect her family and her people from the horrors that used to exist.

The fences and gates that surrounded South London were left to rot and rust; there was no need for them. The small neighbourhood Adelaide lived in was filled with families, giving her children many friends to play with, even some that would come from the North Side. After the months of feuding and hating Ed over political nonsense, the pair finally became friends once again and allowed their children to play together, and would give each other emotional support whenever they need it most.

The sickos might be long dead but the scars and reminders were still inside Adelaide's mind, locked inside and would never really go away. They were a part of her now, and she could pretend they weren't there as much as she liked, they would always remain.

Picking up Esme from the small playing crib beside her and resting the infant’s body on her hip, Adelaide stood up from her chair to see her husband coming towards the house and was with Jordan, causing her to smile as she looked back towards her daughter, giving her a gentle squeeze. "Look, there's daddy! Daddy's home."

Adelaide had “married” Jordan Hordern in a small and private ceremony several months after Jordan Junior was born, but they both decided to wait until the sickos were properly gone and all tension between the North and South side had died down before they properly started a family; they wanted their children to live in a safe environment, one where they didn't need fences or guns to make them safe. It wasn't easy, but they managed with what they could.

Married was in inverted commas because it wasn’t quite official, at least in the eyes of the old law. Their version of a wedding was having Adelaide dress in the whitest dress they could find and exchanged vows taken from a movie before presenting wedding rings they had to search for days to find. But they were happy with it; it was simple, and didn’t take too long to prepare.

Jordan – her son – already knew that Jordan “Senior” wasn’t his real father, and that his real father died protecting his mother from “bad people” when he was still in her belly. She’d showed him the picture she had of him many times and told him that he reminded her of his father every single day. But Jordan Senior still loved Adelaide’s son as if he was his own, just like Adelaide had wanted him to.

Jordan’s sight had significantly diminished in all the years since the war – he was on his last line of sight by that point and they both knew it. He’d taken regular trips to the North Side to see if there was anything they could do to either stop him from going completely blind or perhaps give him some of his sight back. It wasn’t just because of Adelaide that he wanted his sight back; he wanted it back because of his daughter whom he loved so much and his second unborn child that he would want to see with his own eyes rather than hear about how beautiful his child is. So far, they hadn’t found much but they refused to give up hope and took things one day at a time.

After greeting Jordan with a quick kiss and a hug, Adelaide placed her daughter down for a nap, knowing full well that she probably needed sleep after crawling around in her little play crib for most of the day.

But a few hours later, Adelaide was placed on high alert as she heard her daughter screaming for her mother. Adelaide’s nightmares were like that; everyone in the house doing their own thing and one of her children would scream and when Adelaide would arrive, her child would've been devoured by a sicko and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Adelaide ran into her daughter's room as fast as her legs would carry her, soothing her as she cried into her shoulder while her mother gently rocked her back and forth to calm her down. Adelaide sang a soft lullaby to her daughter to calm her down – the usual routine that almost always worked. Her daughter fell asleep almost an hour later, with Adelaide retiring to bed soon after Esme was put down to sleep.

When Adelaide awoke, the sun was just about to rise from the horizon. Everyone else was still asleep but Adelaide couldn’t bring herself to go back to sleep, she’d been asleep for almost twelve hours by that point and she guessed she’d had enough rest. Climbing out of bed, she removed her husband’s arm from around her waist and walked slowly and quietly downstairs to their living room.

On the mantelpiece above the fireplace, the pair had placed various framed photographs upon it – of lost friends and family and other memories that had happened over the last ten years. A small smile came over Adelaide’s face as she looked over them all before picking up a certain one and gently traced the face on it with her fingertips.

“Good morning, DogBrain, I take it you’ll want your usual for breakfast.”

 

 

**_ THE END _ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of Beautiful Crime – thank you all so much for your support; it really means the world to me. But this is not the end of Adelaide’s and DogNut’s story, however – I’ve posted another story about them and it’s called Run On Love and I hope to see you all there although I probably won’t start properly posting it for a while since I’m working on other stories which I’ll tell you about now;  
> I have posted another fanfic set within the Beautiful Crime/Enemy universe. It’s called Power & Control and it’s with David (despite my hatred for him) and I hope you guys like it as much as you liked Beautiful Crime.  
> But if that’s not your thing; I have posted another fanfic set within the proper Enemy universe. It’s called Monster and I’d really appreciate it if you guys went and read it.  
> By popular demand (well, not really, like two people voted and they’re my friends but whatever), the story I’ve chosen to focus on is Power & Control. Although, depending on motivation, I may write a little on Monster and Run On Love.


End file.
